The Swift Current Broncos returned home and earned two points as they defeated the Regina Pats 2-1 on Sunday evening.
It was a low event game with only a combined 44 shots on goal, but the Broncos got the first goal of the contest as Tyson Laventure intercepted a Pats clearing attempt and fired it past Ewan Huet to make it 1-0 late in the first period.
In the second period, the Broncos were outshot 12-4 including a goal that was called off because of goalie interference, but Reid Dyck managed to stop them all, holding the 1-0 lead until about five mintues remained in the third period when Laventure fired a no look pass in front of the Pat net where Clarke Caswell was able to redirect it over the shoulder of Huet to make it 2-0.
Zackery Shantz got the Pats on the board just a minute later, but the Broncos locked things down after that, holding onto the lead even with a high-sticking goal called off on the Pats.
While the Broncos have had some trouble holding onto leads recently, they were able to stay ahead in this game and Assistant Coach Taras McEwen said he was pleased with the commitment to hold on.
“I thought we had a real good focus,” he said. “Talked about wanting to be consistent for 60 minutes, and I thought we showed that. I thought we got better as the game went on and the third period was one of our best periods, just from a tracking standpoint, having numbers back, managing pucks.”
Laventure’s two-point night extended his point streak to five games now, and McEwen says it’s been good to see him get things going offensively.
“He’s been one of our most consistent forwards here in the last four or five games,” McEwen said. “So really happy with his play. He’s just generating a lot of offense with that line (with Mat Ward and Clarke Caswell), that’s the one line that we’ve kept together consistently over the last few games, and that’s just because of the offense they’re been creating and what they’re generating.”
Reid Dyck earned the game’s first star and stopped 23 of 24 on the evening for his third win of the season.
The Broncos now improve to 5-6-0-1 on the season and are back on home ice on Wednesday when they host the Prince Albert Raiders.