The Humboldt Broncos were handed their first loss of the SJHL season on Friday, falling 2-1 to the Melfort Mustangs.

Melfort gained the early lead less than five minutes in after Jaxon Joseph buried a loose puck infront of Broncos starter Jacob Wasserman.

The Mustangs added a tally late in the period when Carson Albrecht deposited his third goal of the season.

Head Coach Darcy Haugan added his thoughts on Wasserman's night following the game.

"I thought he made some timely saves. He would probably like to have the first one back, I'm not sure where it went in on him, but just a scramble in front," he said. "The second one, just a miscue on the backcheck and we were down 2-0, so obviously that one hurt for sure."

It was Wasserman's second start of the season, following a 4-3 shootout win against Notre Dame on September 16.

Logan Schatz cut the Mustangs lead in half late in the second period, ripping a shot past Evan Plotnik.

That would be the last goal scored in a fairly tight defensive game.

Haugan says that they didn't go down without their chances.

"Not sure how many odd man rushes we had where we didn't even get a shot. We'll work on that sort of stuff, but I really liked the resiliency of our hockey team," he explained. "We could have folded our tents after being down 2-0. I thought there were some positives from this and we will learn from the mistakes we made."

Wasserman ended the game with 22 saves on 24 shots faced, while Plotnik stopped 20 of 21 shots towards his crease.

The Broncos head to Saskatoon for their next two games, as the SJHL Showcase takes place from Sunday to Wednesday.

Up first for Humboldt will be the Nipawin Hawks, who Haugan says will be another defensive battling team.

"It's going to be very similar to the game we just played tonight," he said. "Every Dougie Johnson coached hockey team is going to be working really hard. They're not going to give us a lot and they're going to be very structurally sound in their own zone."

The Showcase games are being played at Hamm Latrace Arena in the Bridge City, with faceoff against the Hawks set for 1:00pm.

The Broncos second game will take place on Tuesday afternoon at 3:00 against the Yorkton Terriers.

Humboldt's next home game isn't until October 6, when they welcome Nipawin. The club has been looking to round out season ticket sales for the season, with tickets still available by contacting the Broncos office.

Prior to the game, the team announced the acquisition of defenseman Ryan Straschnitzki from the Whitecourt Wolverines.

The 1999-born Straschnitzki is the final piece in the Morgan Messenger trade from June 2016. He played in three games for the Wolverines this season prior to the trade.