The Swift Current Broncos are preparing for what may be their toughest two-week stretch of the season. A six-game road trip through the Western Hockey League’s (WHL) B.C. division.
“It’s not an easy road trip, just with the travel,” said head coach Taras McEwen. “But with the way we played on the weekend, there’s a lot of confidence for our group that if we play the right way, we can have success going into a really tough Victoria team to start and a real tough back-to-back with Vancouver [also] that’s playing well.”
As of Tuesday afternoon, Swift Current sits seventh place in the Eastern Conference with a 22-18-1-1 record but just five points behind the division-leading Saskatoon Blades.
“The start of the trip is going to really dictate how [the road trip] is going to go,” he added.
The trip will see the Broncos spend dozens of hours on the bus as they travel more than 4,000 kilometres between Jan. 23 when they leave Swift Current and their next home game Feb. 8.
“It is a lot of time to kill,” said goaltender Reid Dyck. “We like to play some cards in the back, maybe bring a crib or something. And then download a lot of movies.”
Forward and captain Clark Caswell is no stranger to the trip, with this year being his third full season in the WHL.
He says he kills his time with TV shows, movies and card games.
“You have to take care of yourself,” Caswell said. “It’s a lot of games in not a lot of days so recovery is a big thing.”
Seizing an opportunity
Despite the grueling schedule ahead, the Broncos are looking to seize an opportunity to climb up the standings.
“We are confident,” Caswell told reporters Tuesday. “[We] got a lot of new bodies from the trade deadline. And we’ve been playing these past few games.
“We’re excited to see what the future holds,” he added.
Those acquisitions include defenseman Marek Rocak and Hunter Mayo. The two players have combined for seven points in five games since the trade deadline Jan. 9.
“Any time you can add two defensemen like that, it puts [other] guys in better spots for them to succeed,” McEwen said.
Dyck said the added assistance on the blue-line has helped him turn a corner from a self-admitted slow start to the season.
“There’s been some ups and downs for sure,” he said. “But I feel like since the [holiday] break, we’ve been playing well as a team and I’ve been playing a lot better personally as well, which have been good. And I’m looking to take that down the stretch.”
McEwen is hopeful strong play over this next six-game stretch could help the Broncos gain some ground on Saskatoon.
“We want to fight for the division lead,” he said. “We want to catch some teams with points. So really important games for us, going out there.”
Winning the East Division would secure one of the top two positions heading into the postseason.
“I think we have a lot of confidence when we play the right way, we can compete with [the top] teams,” McEwen said. “We want to definitely set ourselves up as best we can for the playoffs.”
The Broncos B.C. road trip begins in Victoria against the Royals Saturday.
