A tough one on Saturday night for the Swift Current Broncos as they fell 7-2 to the Victoria Royals at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.
Victoria scored 18 seconds into the hockey game and things went downhill from there as the Royals would tack on three more before the first period came to a close and the Broncos were in a hole early.
“Right off the start, we just didn’t have the pace, and the physicality we expect and to have success in this league,” said Assistant Coach Taras McEwen. “It’s been a tough couple days of travel, but we just didn’t think the guys were ready to go from puck drop.”
The Broncos did seem to find a bit of life though in the second period as Tyson Laventure’s second powerplay goal in as many nights got the Broncos on the board 42 seconds into the period. Through most of the second, the Broncos had a few grade A scoring chances, and dominated the shot clock as they outshot the Royals 14-5 in the frame. The Royals though would hold the lead, and then got a powerplay goal to make it 4-1 before Ty Coupland got things back to 4-2. And just as quick as the Broncos responded, the Royals added another powerplay goal before the end of the second.
“I really liked our push back in the second period, I thought we were generating, and the score should have had a different result in the second period,” McEwen said. “Just the way we played and the shots we generated, the chances that we had.”
Joey Rocha was pulled for Reid Dyck to begin the third period after allowing five goals on 17 shots. Dyck stopped eight of ten he saw the rest of the way.
The Royals added two more on the powerplay in the third period as they went 4-for-5 with the extra man. The Broncos were 1-for-6.
Swift Current returns to action on Tuesday in Kamloops against the Blazers.