The Swift Current Broncos finally found their offensive stride on Wednesday night in a 6-2 win over the Brandon Wheat Kings at Westoba Place.
The first period didn’t go as planned for the Broncos as they were behind 2-1 through 20 minutes after Roger McQueen opened the scoring for Brandon. Brady Birnie tied the game on a breakaway feed from Rylan Gould to tie it up 1-1, but a late Brett Hyland powerplay goal had the Broncos down one through one.
Something switched though between periods for the Broncos as they would take the game over from there. Brady Birnie and Mat Ward each scored on top-shelf wristers to give the Broncos their first lead of the night and to hold a 3-2 lead after two.
Broncos Assistant Coach Taras McEwen said they were able to regroup after the first and respond the rest of the way.
“We did a really good job answering, and it’s on the players for that big win,” he said. “It was a dominating couple periods so it was good to see them respond the right way after that.”
Swift Current would continue to put on the pressure as Gould, and Connor Hvidston scored powerplay goals to make it 5-2, and Grayson Burzynski jumped in on the fun later in the frame to make it 6-2.
After scoring just nine goals in their first four games of the season, McEwen said it takes a bit of pressure of some of the players that weren’t scoring now that it feels like the lid has been taken off.
“You could just tell with some of the guys that are used to scoring, there was definitely some frustration the last few games,” McEwen said. “So it was really good to see Birnie get on the scoreboard a couple times, and Gouldy, so it was a lot of positives all around.”
The Bronco powerplay had plenty of chances and went 2/7 on the evening. Joey Rocha stopped 24 of 26 for his second win of the season. Four players recorded multiple points, while 12 of 18 skaters earned at least one point.
The Broncos are back in action on Friday when they host the Medicine Hat Tigers.