Swift Current Broncos close out the regular season with a win over Regina Pats

The Swift Current Broncos rounded out the year with a home and home against the Regina Pats. With a Broncos 3-2 loss in overtime against the Pats on Friday night, Regina and Swift Current will meet in the first round of playoffs.

Even though this game wasn’t really worth much in the standings, the teams proved that they still have some bite left in them that will carry over into the first matchup, which starts next weekend.

Tanner Nagel was scratched because of his suspension. As well, Andrew Fyten sat and captain Glenn Gawdin. But the most notable scratches were on the Regina Pats. Josh Mahura, Sam Steel, and Cameron Hebig sat this one out in what looked to me that the star players were taking a rest.

Colby Sissons (Darwin Knelsen)

If the first period was any indication about how the first round of playoffs will be, there’s going to be a lot of blood shed in this series. Jesse Gabrielle brought his feistiness with an unsportsmanlike penalty early on and then a blatant hack while entering the Regina zone which logged him an interference penalty. Matteo Gennaro negated that penalty by taking one of his own for roughing after taking out a Pats player at the faceoff dot. MacKenzie Wight and Parker Gavlas threw some punches behind the Regina net while Josh Anderson took on another Pats player. Colby Sissons drew a high-sticking penalty out of Cale Fleury and Fleury was clearly not impressed. Max Patterson got into the mix and so did Kole Gable. Regina took a total of seven penalties while Swift Current had five. After all of those infractions, no goals were scored on any power play.

With 2:09 left in the first period, Regina opened the scoring when Aaron Hymen buried one behind Skinner. Enter Kaden Elder. With traffic in front of the net and his stick on the puck, he slammed it at the Pats net and was shoved to the ice just as the puck crossed the goal line. With the shots on net 15-13 in favour of the visitors, they headed into the middle period with a 1-1 tie.

More and more and more penalties. Sahvan Khaira took an interference call. Then Regina got a bench minor for too many men. Kole Gable, Ethan Regnier, Bryce Platt, and Jonas Harkins all took roughing penalties while Regnier got the extra double minor. In the middle of the parade to the penalty box, a bad line change by Swift Current would cost them a goal by Jared Legien and Regina was up 2-1. Beck Malenstyn stepped up and tied the game soon after with assists to Jacson Alexander and Tyler Steenbergen. And just when we thought this game couldn’t get more ugly, it did. Quinton Waitzner seemingly had been saving his energy while he was scratched. He played some old school hockey, landing haymakers with Scott Mahovlich, in what was the fight of the season for the Broncos. With the shots on goal being 26-21 in favour of Regina, the score remained tied 2-2 after 40 minutes.

Tyler Steenbergen-Daniel Bukac (Darwin Knelsen)

Whether the teams were getting tired or the home team wanted to start over, Swift Current tried to get back to their style of play in the third period. They attempted to set up plays and the penalties were kept to a minimum. But it didn’t last long and the aggressively-charged game from the first 40 minutes returned. It was clear that the Swift Current fans do not like some of the Pats players, and the feeling is mutual. Matt Bradley smashed the curved plexiglass near the visitors bench, earned himself a ten minute misconduct penalty, and the game was delayed for 20 minutes while they tried to fix the issue.

With just over seven minutes left in the third period, a 20 minute wait, and an arena full of fans who wanted to see the game play out, the teams continued to play without replacing the plexiglass. I don’t understand how that’s possible, but, evidently, it is. The last seven minutes of the game seemed the most calm and both teams finished out the period with only one infraction on Aleksi Heponiemi for interference. Swift Current got their minds back in the game and played like a team that wanted to win.

With a score of 2-2, the teams were forced into overtime. Again, the Broncos came together, set the pace in spite of the challenges, and played to win. A mere 32 seconds into overtime would be all the time Tyler Steenbergen would need to re-create his World Juniors moment with the game winning goal. The Swift Current Broncos found redemption over the Regina Pats with a 3-2 win in the second game of a home and home series to end the regular season.

Traci’s 1 Star – all the players who received awards before and after the game. Congratulations on a successful regular season!

The first round of playoffs begins on Friday, March 23rd and 24th, when Swift Current will host the Regina Pats in the first two games of this series. If both teams are healthy and playing all their players throughout the first round, this could turn into one of the most aggressive and energetic series the WHL has had in a long time.