The back half of a home and home set on Saturday night between the Swift Current Broncos and Moose Jaw Warriors went to the Warriors by a 4-3 score.
It was a game that somewhat mirrored the night prior in the sense that the Broncos erased a 3-0 Warrior lead on Saturday, just one night after Moose Jaw erased a 3-1 Bronco lead en-route to a 5-3 win. However, while the Broncos scored three unanswered in the second period, they were unable to get the next one.
The Warriors led 2-0 after one period, and outshot the Broncos 15-7, but Bronco netminder Joey Rocha was fantastic in the first period, and throughout the game, according to Assistant Coach Regan Darby.
“Joey made some great saves. He held us in there after the first,” Darby said. “He had good composure; he saw some high-quality shots and he stood in there well.”
Rocha ultimately stopped 26 of 30 that came his way in the hockey game.
As the Warriors took a 3-0 lead in the second, the Broncos continued to work and were finally able to break through, courtesy of Ryan McCleary. That was followed by a pair of goals from Ryan Gould as the Broncos willed their way back to a tie hockey game.
The third period saw the teams go back and forth with high pace, and energy. Rocha, and Warriors netminder Jackson Unger were excellent for their respective clubs.
However, the Broncos ultimately took four penalties in the third period, and while the first two powerplays didn’t hurt them, the final two did as Brayden Yager scored on a five-on-three with 31 seconds to go in the game.
Atley Calvert also scored twice for the Broncos, while Matthew Savoie scored shorthanded.
Darby said that while the result isn’t what they wanted, he was happy with the response from the group.
“We did a lot of good things there,” he said. “We had some chances, we had some good quality, grade A scoring chances. It could have went our way a couple of times.”
The Broncos are now off until Sunday, January 28 when they visit the Saskatoon Blades.