During the 1998 playoffs with the Swift Current Broncos, optimism was high considering the team guided by Head Coach Todd McLellan finished tied for top spot in the Eastern Division with Regina that season with 97 points - but the Pats were given the pennant because they had 2 more wins (46 to 44).
The Broncos were led that season by Russian Sergei Varlamov.
A flashy, yet skinny kid, who could literally do it all by himself, led the league in scoring that year with 66 goals and 119 points, one more than Brandon's Cory Cyrenne.
If I remember correctly Cyrenne tied Varlamov for the points lead on the Wheat Kings final game of the regular season, but Cyrenne was such an honest guy, he had one of the assists that he was credited with changed giving Varlamov the scoring title.
One more thought on Varlamov.
He hated pasta.
Frankly he hated North American food in general.
But he did like Subway for some odd reason.
I remember specifically stopping at Subway several times that season, with Sergei hopping off the bus as we'd wait patiently for him to return with a sandwich in hand and a huge smile on his face.
Would he get away with that in today's day and age? Likely not.
But for a special player that would get you 60-odd goals, and could literally dominate a game, the coaching staff saw it as a small price to pay to keep your leading goal scorer happy.
What makes the story so funny at the time was Swift Current didn't have a Subway.
What he had for a pre-game meal before a Broncos home game is beyond me?
Sergei Varlamov - Calgary Flames
The Broncos will likely never have two europeans as good as Varlamov and defenseman Michal Rozival playing on the same team. That season Rozival put up 69 points in 71 games.
He's now playing in the National Hockey League, go figure.
The Broncos would open the playoffs in 1998 with a 5 game series win over Red Deer.
But it was a conference semi final against Calgary which stands out as one of the greatest playoff collapses I've every witnessed.
Let me state that the Hitmen were a pretty good team that year, with 40 wins.
Not bad for a third year franchise that had just 18 wins in their expansion year, and 15 wins the year after.
Led by Brad Moran and a goaltender named Alexandre Fomitchev, the Hitmen would be a handful.
While the Broncos had 13 more points than the Hitmen during the regular season, the Hitmen were Central division pennant winners which meant home ice advantage.
The series would be an intense one which showed just two minutes into game one with Broncos tough guy Tony Mohagen trying to set the tone early.
But it backfired.
The Hitmen would score the first-four goals of the game, and despite goals from Mohagen and a youngster by the name of Layne Ulmer, who scored just 8 times that year but would score 50 a year later, the home town Hitmen walked away with a game one 5-2 win.
Michal Rozival - NY Rangers
Games two and three were back in Swift Current, where the Broncos evened the series with a 3-2 double overtime victory.
An unlikely source would score the winner - Brett Allan.
The 17 year-old would beat Fomitchev on the Broncos 55th shot on goal to tie the series at 1. Again tough guy Tony Mohagen would also score for the Broncos, while Sergei Varlamov had a goal and chipped in with an assist, despite the Hitmen playing close attention to him.
The game even features two fights in double overtime.
It's not often you see that, but the series was heating up emotionally at every turn.
Game three saw more emotion, as three fights broke out.
Mohagen, Andrew Milne and scorer Jeremy Reich were in scrappy moods leading the Broncos to a 5-1 win.
With the Broncos holding a 2-1 lead in the series after back-to-back wins the hockey club was feeling confident heading back to Calgary for game 4.
Sergei Varlamov would score twice in a convincing 5-2 game four win, giving the Broncos a 3-1 lead in the series.
Again the game saw more fire works as Tony Mohagen and Ryan Andres would scrap twice in the contest.
Was it any surprise?
That season Andres had 302 penalty minutes while Mohagen had 299.
Game five would also be played in Calgary, and because of conflicts at the Saddledome, the game was played at the old Calgary Corral.
The rink was old and decrepit, yet the fans packed into every available space.
A crowd of almost 68 hundred sandwiched into that building and watched the Hitmen score the game winning goal with less than 3 minutes left in the third period in a do-or-die 3-2 win.
Yet the Broncos needed just one more victory, and game 6 went back to the Civic Centre where the team could take advantage of home ice.
The Hitmen turned the tables and prevailed with a 4-1 road win, sending the series back to the Saddle Dome for game 7 - and do-or-die for both teams.
The deciding game saw the Hitmen with all the momentum.
The Broncos 3-1 series lead had evaporated.
Calgary fans sensed a Swift Current collapse, and came out in support as 12 thousand 726 ( at the time the largest playoff crowd in Hitmen playoff history) watched a defensive battle as the Hitmen recorded a 1-0 win.
The game winner would be scored by overage Brent Dodginghorse in the first period.
For the first time in the series, before my vary eyes I could see the Broncos unravel, as a team that played so well together began to panic and play like individuals.
I remember the Hitmen frustrating Varlamov at every turn, and after staying so composed through the first 6 games, and lashing out against the Hitmen on the scoreboard, Sergei snapped as the Hitmen finally got under his skin as he took 10 minutes in penalties in the game.
The Broncos had 3 games to put the Hitmen away, and just couldn't do it.
It was a terrible way to end a season that featured so much promise.
Yet it ended so quickly, as did the junior careers of Varlamov, Rozival, Tony Mohagen, and overages Terry Friesen, Jeff Kirwan and Jeff Henkelman.
The fans in Swift Current believed he Broncos had a chance at winning the league title that season, as did I.
The following year the Broncos would play .500 hockey, and would be eliminated in the opening round by Moose Jaw, only making the pain and hurt that much greater realizing the Broncos missed a golden opportunity a year earlier.
The 1997-98 season/playoffs with the Broncos will always be my fondest while calling games for my hometown team.
While I will remember the good times, I will also remember the way it ended.
The way it ended left me and everyone one in that city asking the same question - how could the series slip away with the Broncos holding a 3-1 lead.
Tomorrow, part two of the series that slipped away, from a Kelowna Rockets perspective.
1 comment:
Calgary was given home ice advantage in that series because they won the Central division crown, even though they had fewer points in the standings than the Broncos.
But the format was weird, with games one in Calgary - game two and three in Swift - game four and five in Calgary - and game six in Swift Current.
Game seven was at the Saddledome.
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