The Swift Current Broncos (1-3-0-0) had a tough night in Saskatoon against the Blades (3-0-0-0) Saturday night, being outshot 43-27 and dropping an 8-3 game.
The Blades opened the scoring early as their top line cycled the puck deep in the Broncos zone. Connor Roulette found Josh Pillar in the slot and he fired a one timer over the blocker of Reid Dyck 4:12 into the game.
The Broncos responded quickly off a nice individual effort from Connor Hvidston. Off a faceoff in the Blades zone, Hvidston poked the puck forward and stepped between two Blades defenders before lifting the puck over Ethan Chadwick’s blocker to tie the game at one.
Shortly after killing off their first penalty of the game, the Broncos found themselves down 2-1. A long shot from the blue line was stopped by Dyck, but the rebound was jammed in by Rowan Calvert to restore Saskatoon’s lead 3:37 after Hvidston tied the game.
Saskatoon then added to their lead just five seconds into another power play at Justin Lies tipped in a wrist shot from the blue line off a faceoff win. The shots read 13-10 Saskatoon after one as they took a 3-1 lead into the intermission.
After a strong start to the second period by the Broncos, the Blades scored twice exactly two minutes apart, including one shorthanded goal, to push their lead to 5-1. That ended the night for Dyck, who was replaced by Gage Alexander.
Saskatoon added two more to make it 7-1 at the 12:55 mark of the period before Raphael Pelletier scored a power play goal to end the six-goal outburst by the Blades.
The two teams then traded goals in the third period as Landon Roberts scored his first as a Bronco to make the final score 8-3.
The Broncos are next in action on Friday when they host the Prince Albert Raiders (1-3-1-0).