A 60-minute workmanlike effort helped the Swift Current Broncos (5-16-1-0) beat the Regina Pats (8-10-2-1) 4-2. Michael Farren scored twice, and Reid Dyck made 31 saves in the Bronco win.
Not the way the Pats wanted to end the season series against the Broncos. The Pats had outscored the Broncos 18-7 in the three previous meetings.
“We just finished playing two games, two periods, and close to five minutes of doing things the right way,” explained Pat head coach Dave Struch who saw the game as more of a Pats’ letdown.
“With all the success and everything we’ve worked on for 20 games, to see our group develop to what they have. To see them let each other down the way they did in tonight the third period. It’s disappointing, it’s unfortunate.”
“We did everything right the first two periods tonight,” said Struch. “We came out playing the right way, who cares what the score is, the guys played great. The first and second period was exactly how we needed to play.”
“We’ve learned how to win. When you do things the right way, we win no matter what when you do the right thing for 60-plus minutes. For them (the Pats players) to do what they did tonight is unacceptable.”
A slow start to the game. Neither team supplied much offense throughout most of the first period.
It took almost the whole first period for someone to strike and with 1:19 left in the period, the Broncos were that team.
Farren and Carter Stebbings went in on a rush, Stebbings took a shot and Spencer Welke kicked out a rebound right to Farren. He made no mistake and his eighth of the season put the Broncos up 1-0 at 18:41 of the first.
Special teams were not called upon until the 19:56 mark when the Pats were penalized.
Pats held an 11-7 shot advantage in the first twenty minutes.
The Pats got on the board when Kyle Walker banked a shot off Pat captain Logan Nijhoff and past Reid Dyck. The powerplay marker was Nijhoff’s 10th of the season and tied the game at 1-1 at 7:38 of the second period.
“I’m just shooting the puck a bit more,” Nijhoff said of his recent offensive surge. “Every season I’ve been progressively working on my offense, that’s not really the type of player I am. I know I’m not always going to score. I pride myself on faceoffs and defensive zone and being a 200-foot player… Getting older I need to start finishing more and I’ve been lucky enough to do that.”
Another powerplay, another powerplay goal for the Pats. Carson Denomie sniped his 14th of the season as he ripped a shot off the post and in from the slot. Cole Dubinsky and Ryker Evans drew the assists at 16:20 of the period.
The Broncos tied the contest with a powerplay goal of their own as Farren scored his second of the game. Farren’s shot deflected off the Pat defenseman and past Welke. The 2-2 goal at 18:18 of the second was Farren’s ninth of the season.
The game was all tied up at 2-2 after forty minutes.
Not a very fluid start to the final period as both teams struggled to find offense. That was until the Broncos took the lead.
Fresh off a penalty kill, the Broncos took the lead. Caleb Wyrostok scored his fifth goal of the season to give the Broncos a one-goal lead. Wyrostok tapped in a nice back door pass from Owen Williams to make it 3-2 Broncos at 8:04 of the third period.
The Broncos sealed the win as Aiden Bulych picked up an empty netter at 19:26. His sixth of the year gave the Broncos a 4-2 lead.
“Our goaltender (Welke) was really good,” said Struch of Welke who made 21 saves. “You can’t do that to your goalie that’s been working hard in practice all year and do what we did in the third period.”
Patterings: Evans’ point streak was extended to 11 games on the Pats’ second goal… After tonight’s contest, the Pats have three games left in the season… Regina’s next game is Friday at 8 p.m. against the Moose Jaw Warriors.
