Kindersley Klippers captain Brendon Borbely apparently doesn’t want his junior hockey career to end any sooner that it has to.
The 20-year-old defenceman from Okotoks, Alta., has done his part in the past week to try and keep the Klippers in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoff race first setting up the overtime winner in a game against the Melfort Mustangs last weekend and then scoring twice in a 5-3 win over the Notre Dame Hounds earlier this week.
Those two victories moved Kindersley to within four points of the eighth and final playoff spot and with seven games remaining, including a huge showdown with the Humboldt Broncos on Family Day, the Klippers will need Borbely’s leadership and increased offensive output to try and overtake Humboldt, and possibly the Estevan Bruins, to extend their season.
The 5-foot-10, 190-pound Borbely has appeared in over 160 regular-season games with the Klippers over three years, but he hasn’t always been a part of the team during that span. For a very brief time during the summer of 2018 his rights were sent to the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s Drumheller Dragons. In July, 2018, Borbely headed west in exchange for Nate and Clay Keeley, but two months later he was reacquired from Drumheller for Robert Michetti. Prior to his time in Kindersley, Borbely spend one season with the AJHL’s Lloydminster Bobcats before finding his way to west-central Saskatchewan as an 18-year-old.
Before making the jump to the junior ranks, Borbely spent one season with the Lethbridge Hurricanes of the Alberta Midget AAA Hockey League where he collected 12 points in 33 games and as a 15-year-old he registered 22 points in 37 games with the Rockyview Raiders, a minor midget AAA squad.
Borbely’s point production has been on the rise every year in Kindersley and so has his time in the penalty box as his grit has never been more evident than this year leading the team with 139 minutes in penalties.
The Klippers are in a position to make a run at a playoff berth, but they will need every aspect of Borbely’s game to have any success. From what has happened in recent games it looks like he is ready to take on the responsibility.
