Broncos earn points in overtime contests
The Swift Current Broncos brought home three of a possible four points from a trip west over the weekend after defeating the Lethbridge Hurricanes in overtime and losing in a shootout to the Kootenay Ice.
A natural hat trick from captain Colby Cave lifted the Broncos to a 4-3 overtime win over the host Lethbridge Hurricanes Friday.
Cave, 20, scored three unanswered goals, including the overtime winner, his seventh goal of the season.
The Broncos had trailed 3-0 in the third period before scoring three goals over 2:18 to force overtime. Rookie Tyler Steenbergen began the comeback with his third goal of the season and Cave counted twice in 2:11. He scored 3:10 into overtime to help the Broncos improve to 11-8-0-2 on the campaign.
Taylor Cooper, Nikita Milekhin, and Pavel Skumatov had scored to stake the Hurricanes to a 3-0 lead before falling to 5-9-3-1.
Travis Child made 27 saves on 30 shots in his first Western Hockey League win. Zac Robidoux took the overtime loss with 42 saves on 46 shots to drop to 1-4-3-0.
Saturday, the Broncos finished with three of a possible four weekend points after a 3-2 shootout loss to the host Kootenay Ice.
Cave's late powerplay goal salvaged the single point but the Broncos lost in a shootout for the third time in as many attempts this season.
The Broncos trailed twice in regulation on Kootenay goals from Luke Philp and Tim Bozon.
Coda Gordon tied the game for the Broncos in the first period with his 10th goal of the season. Cave tied the game with 1:49 remaining in regulation with his fourth goal in the past two games.
Gordon scored on the first attempt of the shootout but then Glenn Gawdin, Jake DeBrusk, Jay Merkley, and Carter Rigby were all stopped by Wyatt Hoflin.
The Ice were down to their last shot after Landon Bow stopped Bozon and Sam Reinhart but Philp extended the shootout with a goal and then Jaedon Descheneau ended it on the 10th shot of the skills competition.
Bow made 30 saves on 32 shots to move to 10-6-03. Hoflin stopped 27 of 29 shots to improve to 6-10-00 for the Ice.
The Broncos moved their record to 11-8-0-3 to remain second in the East Division. They have now appeared in five overtime games with two wins in overtime and three shootout losses. The Broncos now have two goals on 15 attempts and have allowed seven goals on 15 attempts.
Kootenay improved to 6-13-0-0 with their third straight win. They have two overtime wins and one shootout win this season.
The Broncos will play three home games this week beginning with their first appearance at the Credit Union iplex in 15 days when they host the Prince Albert Raiders on Saturday. The Broncos and Raiders have yet to meet in the 2014-15 regular season after they split the eightgame series last season. The Raiders finished the weekend with an 8-11-0-0 record. Craig Leverton leads them in scoring with 11 goals and 18 points in 19 games and Sawyer Lange has 17 points in 19 games. Swift Current's Tim Van- stone has three points in 10 games during his third WHL season with the Raiders.
The Broncos will also host the Seattle Thunderbirds on Sunday at 4 p.m. as well as the Brandon Wheat Kings on Wednesday.
Seattle was fourth in the US Division with an 8-7-2-1 record after the weekend. They are led by goaltender Taran Kozun, who was third in the WHL with a 2.21 goals against average in 15 games. 2012 WHL Bantam Draft first overall pick Matthew Barzal led the team with 18 points in 16 games. The Thunderbirds will be playing the final game of their sevengame East Division road trip and their third game in as many days after playing in Brandon Friday and Regina Saturday.
The Wheat Kings have won both head-to-head meetings with the Broncos so far this season led by four points from Ivan Provorov and a .918 save percentage from Jordan Papirny in two outings.