Three years marks sombre anniversary of Broncos crash

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This article was published 09/04/2021 (1530 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It is one of those events when everyone remembers what they were doing when they heard about the Humboldt Broncos tragic bus crash.

Indeed, the nation stood still three years ago, late afternoon on April 6, 2018, when the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team, enroute to Nipawin for an SJHL playoff game, collided with a semi, killing 16 of the 29 members of the team on the bus, injuring the remaining 13, some with catastrophic injuries.

The connections that the Steinbach Pistons had with the Humboldt Broncos team were many as it hit very close to home with the Pistons that night, who were also involved in the MJHL playoffs, facing off at home against the Virden Oil Capitals in the first game of the MJHL finals on the night of the crash.

Former Piston Mathieu Gomercic, a friend and former teammate of several members of the Pistons, was on that bus, but thankfully survived. One of the lucky ones, Gomercic was able to play hockey again at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in U Sports, where he is again a teammate of former Pistons vet Tyson McConnell.

Gomercic spent two seasons with the Pistons and then two seasons with the Broncos.

Pistons forward Daniel McKitrick spent the 2017-18 season with the Pistons having played the previous two seasons with the Humboldt Broncos. McKitrick lost several friends in that crash.

And as is the nature of the junior hockey world, as players go from team to team and league to league, especially between the MJHL and the SJHL, several other members of the Pistons had crossed paths with the Broncos players over the years.

Pistons head coach and GM Paul Dyck was also closely connected to some of those involved in the crash, including two of them that lost their lives.

His defensive partner when he played with the Moose Jaw Warriors 30 years ago was Scott Thomas, whose son Evan Thomas was killed in that crash. The next day he called Thomas, who lives in Saskatoon, to give his condolences, a call he says was the most difficult phone call he has ever had to make.

Dyck was also friends with Broncos head coach Darcy Haugan, who was also killed.

On the three-year anniversary of the crash this week, Dyck recounted the events of that evening as they unfolded.

As noted earlier, on that Friday night three years ago, the Pistons were about to start their MJHL final series against the Virden Oil Capitals in Steinbach, with the puck set to drop at 7:00 p.m.

Although the players did not know what was going on because they do not have access to their cell phones on game nights, nonetheless, word was starting to filter out to people in the building that the Humboldt Broncos had been involved in a crash.

MJHL commissioner Kim Davis was also in the building at the time and Dyck sought him out to see what he knew. “It was still early and information was just trickling in, but Kim just said it was bad.”

At 6:47 p.m., just before the Pistons were set to take to the ice, Dyck texted his friend Darcy Haugan, sending a message of support.

After the first period and then the second period, Dyck checked his phone, and with more information coming in about the crash, he still had not heard from Haugan.

When the game ended, in what seemed like an inconsequential loss to Virden, Dyck gathered the team to give them the news about the Broncos. They did not know.

At the time, there were reports that as many 10 Broncos had been killed. “Normally after a game, it is the game that we would be focusing on, but the game didn’t matter.”

Pistons’ chaplain Mike Kehler came into the dressing room to be with the players as Dyck delivered the grim news.

Later that night, Dyck also heard from Christina Haugan via text message confirming that her husband had been killed. He also communicated with her the next day.

Meanwhile, as the entire country went into shock and the accident made international headlines, the Pistons gathered together the next day at the arena as they tried to deal with what had happened.

With the MJHL already postponing the series, hockey was the furthest thing from their minds. “We just got together to talk and grieve, there was also a lot of silence,” said Dyck, “We were just trying to get through the day hour by hour.”

Eventually, hockey resumed and the Pistons went down 2-0 in the series, before eventually rallying to beat Virden in the series to capture their second Turnbull Cup.

Next up were the SJHL champion Nipawin Hawks, the same team the Broncos were to face on that fateful evening. Nipawin and the Pistons split the first two games of the ANAVET Cup in Steinbach, before the series resumed in Nipawin for games, three, four and five.

Along the way to Nipawin, and after a long day on the bus, the Pistons stopped at the crash site to pay their respects. “It was a normal bus trip said Dyck, the guys were doing what they normally do, a lot of chatter and then as we got closer to the site, maybe 20 or 30 minutes away, it became very quiet on the bus, everyone was in anticipation, just staring out the window.”

“When we got off the bus, not a word was said, it was overwhelming and very emotional. It was very important to do this, there were so many connections, especially for Daniel (McKitrick) who lost several friends.”

When they arrived in Nipawin for game three of the series it was also an extremely emotional time. Of course Nipawin, and the Hawks, were ground zero of the crash. Steinbach native Thomas Lenchyshyn was a member of that Nipawin team.

At that game, Christina Haugan was also in attendance, with her two sons, who met the Pistons in the dressing room. The Pistons presented the two boys with Pistons’ jerseys. “They were cheering for us instead of Nipawin because of the rivalry that Nipawin and Humboldt had,” said Dyck.

Of course the Pistons would also go on to win this series and advance to the RBC Cup National Junior ‘A’ championships at Chilliwack, B.C.

But even now, three years later, all of that hockey, and that championship season for the Pistons, somehow seems secondary as it all transpired in and around one of the greatest tragedies this country has ever seen.

“I can’t believe it is already three years,” said Dyck, “when I think back to that time it seems almost surreal as to what happened.”