Connor Dale (St. Albert, AB) with 3:10 left in regulation proved to be the hero Tuesday night as the Swift Current Broncos held serve in a 5-4 Game 3 win at home against the Medicine Hat Tigers.
Swift Current would be down in the first nearing the half-way mark when Bryce Pickford found his third of the series for the Tigers at 9:03 giving them the lead at 1-0 but 49 seconds later, Trae Wilke (Saskatoon, SK) would find the back of the net getting the Broncos on the board drawing things even at 1-1 from Rylan Gould (Headingly, MB) & Dale . Finally for the first time in the series the Broncos would have a lead courtesy of Carlin Dezainde (Calgary, AB) from Grayson Burzynski (Winnipeg, MB) & Reid Dyck (Winkler, MB) at 13:41 and Swift Current would hold that very lead into the second.
After killing off a 4 on 3 penalty kill, the Broncos would still fall on the wrong end as Medicine Hat would the game at 2-2 from Josh Van Mulligen coming off the bench at 5:16. But Swift Current would take advantage of a four-on-four where Dezainde would pounce on his 2nd of the night at 7:05 from Peyton Kettles (Winnipeg, MB) & Hunter Mayo (Saskatoon, SK). On a 4 on 3 power 1:05 later, the Broncos would finally score on the man-advantage when Dezainde would re-direct for his first WHL Playoff hat-trick and a 4-2 Swift Current lead from Clarke Caswell (Brandon, MB) & Mayo. That goal would chase Tigers goaltender Harrison Meneghin from the game and bring in Jordan Switzer. Medicine Hat would score on a shorthanded drive from Hunter St.Martin at 12:52 from Mat Ward making it a one-goal game heading to the third.
In the final frame just half-way through the period, Oasiz Wiesblatt would solve Reid Dyck to make it 4-4 draw from Gavin McKenna and Ryder Ritchie. The dramatics would hit a new high in this series as Misha Volotovskii would be hooked enough for Rylan Gould to be tagged for a penalty shot leading for an opportunity for the Tigers to take the lead but Reid Dyck would slam the door shut setting up a break-out moments later as Dale would break-in beating Jordan Switzer on the back-hand past a chasing Tanner Molendyk to give the home-side the lead.
Medicine Hat would pull the goaltender shortly after but could not get the equalizer and the Broncos would find themselves victorious in Game 3.
Swift Current will look for back-to-back home wins Wednesday night when they battle the Tigers again for Game 4 at 7 PM.