Broncos rout Blades
Broncos 8, Blades 3
SWIFT CURRENT — The Saskatoon Blades only have 12 games left in the WHL regular season to work out the kinks before the playoffs begin.
And Brent Benson believes the time to start figuring it out is now.
The Blades ( 35- 24- 0- 1) dropped to sixth place in the Eastern Conference — still 11 points ahead of ninthplace Red Deer — after an ugly 8-3 loss to the Swift Current Broncos at Credit Union iplex on Saturday.
The Broncos found the back of the net in every way possible in a four-goal first period as Coda Gordon (power play), Ryon Moser (even strength), Josh Derko (shorthanded) and Levi Bews (even strength) all scored.
It could have been even uglier if goalie Andrey Makarov didn’t make a sliding glove save on a seldom-seen 4-on-1.
“The last couple of games we haven’t come out ready to play and it’s cost us,” said Benson, the team’s first-line centre and assistant captain. “I don’t know what it is, if it’s our pre-game warm-up or what, but we’re not ready to go right now and it’s killing us.”
The Blades lost three games in a row before beating the Broncos 7-3 in Saskatoon the night before.
It seemed the Broncos had that loss in mind from the time the first puck dropped.
Swift Current built off its impressive opening period by scoring early in the second to send Makarov to the bench.
Bews jumped on a rebound 5:26 into the frame, ending Makarov’s night after five goals on 25 shots.
“You’ve got to think it’s our mindset,” said Benson. “We go in and beat them pretty bad (Friday) night and we figured they were just going to roll over and die. They’re not that kind of team and we’ve got to know that every game’s a different game.”
The pair of goals gave Bews three in two days against his former team.
The 17-year-old winger played 52 games for Saskatoon last season, but was dealt to Vancouver along with goaltender Adam Morrison on Oct. 4 for a package that included overage winger Michael Burns.
He was then flipped to the rebuilding Broncos for a sixth-round bantam pick on Jan. 9.
“To put it to a team like that definitely takes them out of the game,” said Bews. “Doing that tonight was huge for our win.
“We’re trying to be spoilers here.”
Gordon, Taylor Vause and Graham Black scored on Blades backup Adam Todd, who made 17 stops in relief.
Jon Groenheyde had 33 saves in the Swift Current crease.