by Culp, Leesa
Those two opening victories came on the road, and the Broncos didn’t cool off. By mid-October, they had won eight straight games, the last one an 8–2 victory over the visiting Warriors. The Broncos won despite the fact that the team’s general manager and head coach, Graham James, was kicked out after loudly criticizing the referee. In a bizarre twist, two players — Peter Soberlak and Dan Lambert — took over the coaching reins because assistant coach Lorne Frey was away on a brief vacation.
As it turned out, the game wasn’t a whole lot about hockey as it included irate fans, thirty-two penalties, and one of the Broncos, Mark McFarlane — an eighteen-year-old right winger from Amherst, Nova Scotia — scaling the partition separating the two penalty boxes and clambering through the timekeeper’s bench in an attempt to get at Moose Jaw defenceman Paul Giokas in the third period. As that went on, the scoreboard suddenly lost power.
Finally, in true WWE fashion, the always quotable James stated, “This was the worst display of officiating I have seen since Hulk Hogan lost his title. The refereeing was ridiculous!”
While the Broncos were getting plenty of offence from Tisdale, they weren’t a one-man show. Trevor Kruger and Sheldon Kennedy were respectively named the East Division’s goaltender and player of the month for October. Kruger had been in goal as the Broncos opened with twelve victories. He posted a 4.24 goals-against average — these were the days of firewagon hockey; the trap had yet to make its way into the WHL. Kennedy had a whopping thirty-three points in thirteen October games. He led the WHL in goals (twenty) and power-play goals (twelve).
Off the ice, the Broncos were enjoying solid fan support. Their average home attendance was 2,339, with a season-ticket base of 1,250, numbers that were rather impressive for such a small community. When Moose Jaw visited on Remembrance Day, the game drew a season-high 2,626 fans, perhaps because folks were looking for a WWE-type rematch.
“[The attendance] is up a little bit,” James told the Sun, “but we had tremendous support all of last [season], too. We’ve had some good dates this year, the team has been winning, and we play an exciting style of hockey. The weather has also been good for our games so we’ve had a combination of a lot of things in our favour.”
Sheldon Kennedy’s speed often left him one on one with goaltenders.
Rod Steensland.
James further stated that “the community seems to really take to this team and hopefully it will continue. I guess surprised isn’t the word, because nothing surprises me, but we are very happy.
“I think it is the type of hockey we play, and we have a lot of players who the fans can identify with. That’s something we try not to lose touch with in our scouting. It’s good to have players like [Sheldon] Kennedy and [Dan] Lambert and hopefully we’ll have a few more in the future.”
The fans also loved the Broncos’ spirit, which was never more in evidence than in a wild November matchup in Medicine Hat. The Broncos, who trailed 6–1 at one point, won 7–6 in overtime.
“It was unbelievable,” Frey said. “You can’t even imagine what it’s like. It’s impossible to comprehend what happened tonight. To be down 6–1 and totally out of it, then come back and win it — it’s unbelievable.”
During the game, with the Broncos struggling in the second period, James decided to keep the players at the bench for the second intermission. The players were forced to endure the Medicine Hat hecklers. “He was really disappointed at how we played in our first two periods. We were atrocious. The second was probably our worst period of hockey all year,” Frey told the Sun.
By the time the Christmas break arrived, the Broncos had won twenty-eight of thirty-three games and were on a ten-game winning streak. After Christmas, the streak reached twelve before it was halted on New Year’s Eve afternoon, when the Broncos were beaten 8–6 by the Tigers in Medicine Hat. The Broncos were without Soberlak (he had the flu), while Kennedy and Lambert were playing for Canada at the World Junior Championship in Alaska.
Tisdale had been unhappy with that performance and was determined to rebound in the rematch, which, as luck would have it, was scheduled for Swift Current on New Year’s Day. He had two goals and four assists, and Wilkie had a shorthanded goal in the second period. The Broncos whipped the Tigers 8–2.
“We always seem to play well when we score the first goal,” James told the Sun. “That was important, especially after we lost our last game. It gave us a psychological edge.”
In the end, the Broncos won six of seven games without Kennedy and Lambert. “I wasn’t surprised at all,” Kennedy said upon his return. “I knew we had a lot of talent and I knew we were still capable of winning. We still had Tisdale, Kasowski, Wilkie, and Kruger, who are good hockey players, and … Kimbi Daniels and those guys came up big.”
In December, the WHL had announced that James, for the second consecutive season, would be the East Division’s head coach at the All-Star Game that would be played in Brandon on January 24. The head coaches came from the teams with the best record in each division after thirty-four games.
“I enjoyed my stint as [all-star] coach last year and I’m looking forward to it again this year,” James told the Sun, also noting that there were “going to be some hurt feelings” when he announced which players would be going with him to the game. He certainly was right about that.
In mid-January, it was announced that five Broncos — Kennedy, Tisdale, Lambert, and the Kruger brothers, Darren and Trevor — would join James, Frey, and trainer Grant Farquhar on the East Division team.
The WHL’s 1987–88 East Division all-star team. Note that the front and back rows are reversed in the caption on the photo.
Courtesy of Bob Wilkie.
The WHL’s 1988–89 East Division all-star team.
Courtesy of Bob Wilkie.
Wilkie says he “was devastated not to have been selected.” And, in reflection, he admits that he was by now starting to realize that James wasn’t all he pretended to be. “Earlier in the season, Graham had told me he was going to recommend me for the Canadian team that would play at the World Junior Championship,” Wilkie says. “Well, that didn’t happen, so I was really upset when my name wasn’t on the roster of the East Division all-star team, especially because Graham had hinted on many occasions that I would be there.
“This was typical of his behaviour and I now was beginning to see Graham James for the masterful manipulator that he truly was.”
In their next game, the Broncos ambushed the Brandon Wheat Kings 9–5, and Kennedy, Kyle Reeves, and Wilkie set a WHL record by scoring three goals in sixteen seconds. That broke the record of seventeen seconds that had been shared by the 1967–68 Winnipeg Jets and the 1970–71 Saskatoon Blades. (It would later be broken by the Kelowna Rockets, who lowered it to twelve seconds on February 17, 1996.)
Wilkie learned on January 18 that he would play in the All-Star Game after all, as an injury-replacement for Brandon defenceman Kevin Cheveldayoff of the Wheat Kings (the same Kevin Cheveldayoff who is now the general manager of the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets). The West Division won the game 5–1 before 2,933 fans. The game is mostly remembered for a hit by Tri-City Americans defenceman Steve Jaques on centre Mike Modano of the Prince Albert Raiders, who had been the first overall pick by the then–Minnesota North Stars in the 1988 NHL draft. Modano, a highly skilled centre who went on to a brilliant NHL career, emerged with a broken scaphoid, and at the time there was much concern shown for his condition.
And then it was back to Swift Current and on with the season.…
By the time the Broncos left on their West Coast road swing at the end of January, they had all but clinched the East Division regular-season title. At the all-star break, they held a nineteen-point lead. Still, the Broncos didn’t want to rest on their laurels.
“The biggest thing in these coast trips are the first couple of games,” Frey stated. “From all past experiences, teams that have gotten off to good starts go on to have good road trips. If you struggle early, it
Bob Wilkie, a 1989 WHL East Division all-star.
Courtesy of Bob Wilkie.
seems to snowball the other way. But I think our guys are so confident in their ability that if that should happen they still have the talent to turn it around.”
The trip began in Lethbridge on January 27, just three days after the All-Star Game. Then it was on to Kamloops; Victoria; Portland; Seattle; Kennewick, Washington, the home of the Tri-City Americans; and Spokane. By the time it was over, the Broncos would have played seven games in ten days.
Things weren’t entirely pleasant, either. The Broncos got whipped 9–2 in Kamloops. Prior to the start of the third period, James sent Lambert, Tisdale, Kennedy, Kasowski, and Wilkie to the showers.
While the Broncos finished with a 55–16–1 record, they won only two of the six games in the West Division. Wilkie missed most of those games with a shoulder injury that would cost him seven games.
As often happens to teams after long road trips, the Broncos struggled early upon their return. In fact, Prince Albert went into Swift Current and won 3–0 on February 12. It was the first time the Broncos, the highest-scoring team in the league, were shut out that season. James was so unhappy that he didn’t speak to the players or the media after the game.
On February 24, the Broncos beat the visiting Portland Winter Hawks 7–4, clinching first place overall and home-ice advantage through the championship final, should they get that far.
The Broncos ended the regular season with one of the best records in WHL history: 55–16–1. They went 33–2–1 on home ice, establishing a WHL record for most victories at home, one that would be tied the next season by Kamloops and the Seattle Thunderbirds.
The Broncos had scored a WHL-high 447 goals, and five players finished with at least one hundred points: Tisdale (139), Kasowski (131), Kennedy (106), Lambert (102), and Brian Sakic (100). Darren Kruger and Wilkie, both defencemen like Lambert, finished with ninety-seven and eighty-five points, respectively. Trevor Kruger was among the top goaltenders with a 4.01 GAA and a 47–8–0 record.
The Broncos also were a hit at the box office. By season’s end, they were drawing upwards of three thousand fans per game. In a community of slightly more than sixteen thousand people, they were drawing about one of every six Swift Current residents to games. To put that into perspective, that would be like the Toronto Maple Leafs, who play in a city of three million people, selling five hundred thousand tickets to every game.
With the playoffs approaching, those loyal fans were even more eager. On the day that playoff tickets went on sale, people started lining
.
Swift Current fans wait at the airport gate for the Broncos after the 1989 WHL championship series victory over the Portland Winter Hawks.
Courtesy of Bob Wilkie.
up at 4:30 a.m. The Broncos rewarded those fans by sweeping three best-of-seven series. That’s right. They won twelve straight playoff games — sweeping Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, and Portland — to qualify for the Memorial Cup tournament, which was to take place in Saskatoon.
The Broncos wrapped up the WHL championship by beating the Winter Hawks 4–1 in Portland, and when their plane arrived back in Swift Current, they were greeted by hundreds of cheering, towel-waving fans. Parents, relatives, girlfriends, friends, and fans greeted them as they departed the TimeAir charter flight, hoisting the Msgr. Athol Murray Memorial Trophy.
But there still was this matter of the Memorial Cup.
With the tournament being held in Saskatoon, it meant that the Blades would be the host team. The Peterborough Petes were the Ontario Hockey League champions and the Laval Titans had won the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League championship.
Most teams, in this instance the Lethbridge Hurricanes, went to great lengths to stop Sheldon Kennedy (12).
Rod Steensland.
Because the Broncos had taken only four games to oust Portland, they had a full week off. That allowed the Broncos to heal some bumps and bruises, and also to get settled down and focus on the task at hand.
“Since we had finished with the best record in the Canadian Hockey League,” Wilkie says, “we weren’t too worried about any of the other teams. We went into the tournament more concerned with our own play.”
Their concerns were warranted, as they got off to something of a shaky start.
They had to come from behind to beat Peterborough 6–4 before 8,794 fans. Wilkie remembers that Kennedy “took a lot of abuse from the Petes — he obviously was a big part of their game plan, as they hit him at every opportunity. They really checked him hard and had him frustrated. On one occasion, he gave away the puck as he fanned on a clearance deep in our end, and it resulted in a goal by Peterborough’s Tie Domi.”
In the end, though, Kennedy scored two third-period goals to spark the comeback.
“I made a couple of mistakes I didn’t know I could get back from. I just did my best to cover those mistakes up in the third period,” Kennedy said.
In their second game, the Broncos again had to come from behind, this time to beat Laval 6–5 before 8,733 screaming fans. The Sun reported that the Broncos had played their “worst hockey in the playoffs” in that victory.
“This is the most relieved I have been in my three years in this league,” James said. “Their goaltender [Ghislain Lefebvre] made some big saves throughout the game and I didn’t think we were going to win.”
The Broncos now had won fourteen straight post-season games and were looking at two days off before facing the Blades, a team they had swept from the second round of the WHL playoffs. The Broncos were feeling on edge, so they held a team meeting, the aim of which was to get everyone to relax.
“We also knew that a victory over the Blades would put us into the Memorial Cup final,” Wilkie says.
Soberlak put it all in perspective when he told the Sun, “There has been a lot of pressure on us all year. We’re used to it and we just take it all in stride. We all know we are going to have to play a lot better and make a better effort if we are going to beat Saskatoon. They have been playing well and we just have to dig deeper and do things that got us here.
“I’m looking forward to these next couple of games because they will likely be my last games in a Swift Current uniform. Hopefully, I can finish with a strong tournament and show the Edmonton Oilers brass who are here that I am capable of playing and, hopefully, they will make me a member of their club next season.”
Tim Tisdale (13) of the Swift Current Broncos scored the overtime goal that won the 1989 Memorial Cup in Saskatoon.
Bryan Schlosser/Regina Leader-Post. Reprinted by permission.
On May 10, there were about one thousand Broncos fans scattered among the SaskPlace crowd of 8,763. They proudly displayed their Swift Current pride by wearing Broncos sweaters, hats, pins, and anything else that was blue and green.
The Broncos disappointed their fans by losing 5–4, a decision that sent the Blades into the final and put Swift Current into a semifinal game against Peterborough, which had beaten Laval 5–4 in a tiebreaker. Finally finding their game, the Broncos beat the Petes 6–2 before 8,378 fans.
That set up the final. It would be played May 13, and would be on national television and in front of 9,078 frenzied fans.
“We weren’t distracted,” Wilkie says. “We knew this was our moment. The core guys who had been there from the beginning — Peter, Tim, Trevor, Sheldon, Danny, and myself — had no doubt we would win.”
While they may not have had any doubts, the outcome was in doubt until the end. It turned out to be a classic junior hockey game, with the teams tied 3–3 after three periods.
The Broncos retreated to their dressing room after the third period and were awaiting the start of sudden-death overtime when Tisdale, their oh-so-silent leader, suddenly stood up and declared, “I got it, boys.”
“Yeah,” Wilkie says, “Tizzy was talking about the winning goal.”
Both teams came out fired up for the overtime, an
d there were close calls on both sides. The Blades had their chances, with Broncos goaltender Trevor Kruger forced to make five straight stops at one point.
But then, with the OT period slightly more than three minutes old, the puck came to Wilkie at the Blades’ blue line. He made a series of moves that took him in behind the Saskatoon net.
“I was filled with so much energy and emotion that everything seemed to be moving in slow motion,” he says. “Taking a look, I clearly saw my defence partner, Darren Kruger, standing all alone at the point. Without hesitation, I made a perfectly executed pass to him and Darren blasted the puck at goaltender Mike Greenlay.
“Tim Tisdale — who else? — was standing in front of the net for the screen, and he magically tipped the puck past Greenlay.”
At 3:25 of the first sudden-death overtime period, the Swift Current Broncos became Memorial Cup champions.
“I was just standing there and it hit my stick,” Tisdale said. “I still don’t know how it went in.”
The building was in a state of pandemonium. The Broncos threw sticks, equipment, and clothing everywhere.
Talk about a hometown hero.
Tim Tisdale had been born in Shaunavon, a farming community 108 kilometres southwest of Swift Current. However, he grew up in Swift Current and played minor hockey there. In 1986–87, he was a third-line centre who put up forty-nine points, including twenty-nine goals, in sixty-six games. The next season, he was limited to thirty-two games — and twenty-six points — by injuries.
So who could have seen the season he would have in 1988–89 when he finished with 139 points, including fifty-seven goals, in sixty-eight games? He continued that frenetic offensive pace in the playoffs, with thirty-two points, seventeen of them goals, in only twelve games. Then, of course, came the Memorial Cup–winning goal in overtime.