The Swift Current Broncos earned a 5-2 win over the Regina Pats on Friday night at the InnovationPlex at Teddy Bear Toss night.
Fans only had to wait about 10 minutes of game time as Rylan Gould whacked home a Brady Birnie shot to send the InnovationPlex into mayhem as the teddy bears came flying down as the Mustangs held a 1-0 lead. A total of 1,065 bears, mitts, and toques were flung onto the ice as part of the goal in support of the Salvation Army, the Jim Pattison Children’s Hosptial and the Children’s Miracle Network.
The Broncos continued rolling as Clarke Caswell scored his eighth of the year just about eight minutes into the second period, and Josh Filmon made it 3-0 after two periods of hockey, where the Broncos outshot the Pats 38-20 through two periods.
However, the Pats would push back early in the third period as Keagan Slaney and Jaxsin Vaughn scored just about four minutes into the third to make things 3-2 and it felt like Regina had some momentum. Although just about a minute and a half later, Owen Pickering scored for the Broncos to restore the two-goal lead.
Broncos Interim Head Coach Taras McEwen said the response of the group shows their focus on the task at hand.
“We just continued to play the right way,” he said. “I liked the response on the bench, they’re very focused, we want to just move on to the next play, we know what we have to do. We’ve talked about managing games in the third period, tight games, so that’s what we did and that was the message.”
Later in the third period, shortly after earning his first career WHL assist, Petr Pavelec would score his first career WHL goal to make it 5-2.
McEwen said after one of the team’s better efforts on Tuesday against Medicine Hat
“We had the puck for a lot of the game,” McEwen said. “Had some really good offensive zone time and offensive zone possession, and quality chances, so really happy with the sixty-minute effort.”
Joey Rocha stopped 28 of 30 in the victory, his first start since October 28. The Broncos are back in action on Saturday night in Saskatoon against the Blades.