A pretty solid home ice effort by the Humboldt Broncos Tuesday night was spoiled by a hungry Ice Wolves squad from LaRonge.

Fresh off a 5-1 triumph on Saturday up north, the Wolves again took an early lead and essentially held off the Broncos en route to a 5-3 win. The loss was especially hard to swallow for the green and gold upon hearing the Yorkton Terriers edged Flin Flon 3-2, that spreads the gap to nine points for the final playoff position.

Each team has nine games left. Humboldt still has five of their next six at home to finish February's schedule.

Early in period one, LaRonge's Nick Prouty gave the visitors a 1-0 lead jumping on a rebound in front of Carter Seminuk,

The Broncos would respond, Chris Van Os-Shaw completed an odd man rush with his red hot linemates Trevor Posch and Logan Schatz at 8:11 to make it 1-1.

The Wolves would get the lead back before the first was out, Prouty beat Seminuk again to give LaRonge a 2-1 lead.

Cole Porter would sting the Broncos again while short-handed, just past the seven minute mark of the second, the 20 year-old stole the puck behind Humboldt's net and tucked in his 25th of the season. He has three short-handed goals against the Broncos in the last two games.

No quit in the home side however as their 5'6" rookie from Nunavut would keep them close. Daniel McKitrick snapped his 16th of the season past Kris Joyce just a couple minutes after Wolves' tally. Schatz and Posch each picked up their second points of the night.

They couldn't quite get to the third within a shot though, Jared Blaquiere scored his first of two in the game. The first on the power-play at 16:04 making it 4-2.

The Broncos couldn't draw any closer in the third, Blaquiere bounced his second into an empty net with Seminuk on the bench for an extra attacker making it 5-2.

McKitrick would collect his team leading 17th goal in the final minute from Laramie Kostelansky and Josh Bergen to complete the score-sheet.

The Broncos' special teams won the battle on this night, they were 2/5 on the power-play and allowed just one to the Wolves on five chances. That included Humboldt killing a late five-on-three for a complete two-minute span.

Seminuk stopped 26/30 shots, Joyce was his usual stellar self with 20 saves in the win.

Next up is Kindersley on Friday. The Broncos will hold their annual shoot-out auction after the game. The shoot-out itself will be after Saturday night's game against the Weyburn Red Wings. That could be Jarrett Fontaine's final game at the Elgar Petersen Arena. Face-off is 7:30 both nights.

In the one other game Tuesday, Estevan pummeled Notre Dame 8-2.