The Swift Current Broncos win streak ended at three games on Saturday night after a 4-2 loss at the hands of the Prince Albert Raiders.
It was the third game in four nights for the Broncos who just beat the Raiders on Wednesday, but on this night the Broncos fell behind early 3-0 in the first and didn’t get their first shot on goal until late in the frame. Brayden Dube, Niall Crocker, and Hayden Pakkala scored for Prince Albert.
“There’s just no excuses, just have to be better,” said Assistant Coach Taras McEwen. “It’s been a common theme here the last couple of games, is our starts and giving up the first one.”
However, the Broncos did show some life late in the first period as Clarke Caswell’s sixth of the year made it 3-1 with about three minutes to play in the frame.
Ryder Ritchie scored halfway through the second period to restore the Raiders' three-goal lead. Then Tyson Laventure extended his point streak with a goal to bring things back to within two goals. Swift Current seemed to have some good stretches, but they weren’t able to get the next one.
“I liked our push back at times,” McEwen said. “Once it got to 4-2, I thought there was a lot of push back and going into the third period I thought there was really good moments of real good offensive time, and touches, and low to high cycles but we just weren’t getting enough pucks on net.”
The third period turned nasty as both there were two five-minute majors called on the Broncos and there were two incidents of multiple fights in one stoppage of play. Nobody scored in the period, but the two teams combined for over 100 penalty minutes which included fighting majors, and game misconducts which are labeled as “10 minutes”.
The Broncos are now 7-7-1-0 and will be back in action on home ice on Friday hosting Portland.