Swift Current 4 Prince George 0
Josh Anderson had to have this game circled on the calendar. His former team, the Prince George Cougars (18-25-4-4) came into the Credit Union Iplex to take on his current one, the Swift Current Broncos (36-12-3-1) and the end result you could probably have predicted off of their records this season.
What could not have been easily predicted though was the fact that Anderson would net a goal. The shutdown defenseman is not known for his offense as his seven career goals in 186 WHL games coming in could attest.
There was Anderson though rifling a power play marker past Prince George goalie Tavin Grant with 8:14 to play, sealing a 4-0 win and moving his Broncos to within five points of the East Division leading Moose Jaw Warriors. The Warriors do have three games in hand though on the Broncos.
Anderosn’s fellow d-man, Colby Sissons had three assists, captain Glenn Gawdin had two and rookie goalie Joel Hofer stopped all 30 shots he faced in the win.
This was Hofer’s first career shutout and he runs his GAA to 2.61 and save percentage to 0.917 in his 14th appearance this year.
The Cougars played with fire in this one as they gave the league’s best power play seven opportunities, of which the Broncos cashed in on two of.
Top open the scoring, Tyler Steenbergen found some room between the face off dots and tipped home a hard pass from Sissons for his 37th goal of the year. After a hot start, Steenbergen has cooled down a bit and has just two goals in his last 10 games.
In the second, Matteo Gennaro found some space below the blue line on the move and wired a shot by Grant on the power play. The goal was Gennaro’s 32nd of the year.
Max Patterson added his seventh this year to make it 3-0 as he he tipped home a shot from Sissons.
Anderson then completed the scoring as he went end to end and dished off to Artyom Minulin, who found his d-partner at the back door for the goal against the team that took him third overall in the 2013 Bantam Draft.
Swift Current next plays on Friday when they start a two-game road trip in Lethbridge. The Cougars who have dropped all three games on their East Division swing, continue their trio in Moose Jaw on Wednesday. They have been outscored 14-5 over the three games.
