Broncos sweep weekend home stand as reinforcements arrive

The Swift Current Broncos won two of three games last week as their line-up evolved ahead of the Western Hockey League trade deadline.

Wednesday, the Broncos allowed five goals in the third period in a 6-3 loss to the host Lethbridge Hurricanes.

Clarke Caswell, Connor Gabriel, and Connor Hvidston scored in a losing cause. Caswell assisted on both goals for a three-point outing.

Tyson Zimmer and Brayden Edwards led the Hurricanes with two goals each, followed by singles from Logan Wormald and Elias Knoester. Lethbridge finished three-for-five on the power play.

Matthew Kieper made 33 saves for the Broncos. Harrison Meneghin earned the win with 25 saves.

Friday, the Broncos overcame a slow start to defeat the visiting Spokane Chiefs 8-4 with a four-goal third period.

The Broncos made two costly turnovers in the opening 44 seconds to fall behind 2-0 on goals from Berkley Catton and Cole Wadsworth. The Broncos recovered in the second half of the period, beginning with a Tyson Laventure goal, his 15th of the season with 6:08 remaining in the period. Josh Filmon added a power play goal with 1:48 remaining on a point shot for his 16th goal of the season.

Both teams scored twice in the second period as well when Connor Roulette and Will Mcissac scored for the Chiefs to give them a pair of leads. Caleb Wyrostok replied for the Broncos with his 11th goal and Caswell scored a shorthanded goal to tie the game a second time in the period.

The third period was all Broncos as they got goals from Filmon and Rylan Gould to pull ahead before Wyrostok scored into an empty net. Dawson Gerwing capped the win with his first WHL goal.

Joey Rocha started the game for the Broncos and made 17 saves on 21 shots. Kieper earned the win with 12 saves on 12 shots.

Dawson Cowan took the loss with 23 saves for the Chiefs.

Saturday, the Broncos built up a five-goal lead and barely escaped with a 7-6 win over the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors.

The Broncos took the initial lead 3:28 into regulation when Ty Coupland struck for his fifth goal of the season. Martin Rysavy tied the game for the Warriors with a power play goal. The Broncos answered with a Luke Mistelbacher goal, his seventh, to lead 2-1.

The second period was all Broncos on the score sheet with three goals to open a commanding 5-1 lead. Coupland scored on the power play and then Mistelbacher also added his second of the game. Hvidston scored 10 seconds later, his 16th of season.

The Broncos stretched the lead to five goals only 11 seconds into the third period with a Gabriel goal. The Warriors then stunned the Innovationplex crowd with five goals in 10:30, including two goals from Atley Calvert and singles from Ethan Semeniuk, Rilen Kovasevic, and Jagger Firkus.

Filmon restored the lead with 6:06 remaining in regulation with his 18th goal as he got behind the defense and went five-hole with a nifty backhand deke.

Kieper made 28 saves to improve to 6-2-2-1 for the Broncos.

Dimitri Fortin fell to 3–3-0-0 with 32 saves.

The Broncos moved into fourth spot in the Eastern Conference with a 20-15-2-2 record. Moose Jaw remained third at 22-15-0-2 as their five-game winning streak came to an end.

The Broncos will visit the Brandon Wheat Kings on Friday. The Broncos have a 1-1 record in the season series so far.

They will also visit the Medicine Hat Tigers on Tuesday. The Broncos hold a 3-0-1-0 record in the season series.

Bronco Bits: 6’5’’ Czech defenseman Jakub Dvorak signed last week and finished with a plussix rating in his first three WHL games. Defensemen Ryan Mccleary and Zach Turner both returned from suspension over the weekend.