Broncos top Blades in Swift Current
Despite playing well for the first 40 minutes in their Friday night game against Regina, the Blades took their foot off the gas, and allowed the Pats to come roaring back. They know they need to do better against a good Broncos team.
“We need to play smart, physical hockey for a full sixty,” said Dean Brockman at pre-game skate. “We can’t make mistakes like we did last night. Hopefully we can bounce back, because this is a big game.”
Things wouldn’t start well for the Blades – early in the first, Josh Uhrich would be sent off for tripping. Just ten 10 seconds later Jake DeBrusk would fire one past Brock Hamm and the Broncos would grab the quick lead.
Penalties would continue to hurt the Blades – just minutes later, Cameron Hebig would spend time in the sin bin for hooking, and the Broncos would take advantage. Brett Lernout would find the net on the man advantage, and the lead would grow to 2-0.
“We’ve said it a million times – we can’t keep taking penalties like that,” said Assistant Coach Dean Brockman after the game. “You put them on the powerplay, and it just makes things so much tougher. We can’t shoot ourselves in the foot.”
The Blades wouldn’t stay down for long. Shortly after, Nick Zajac would crash the net and bang in his 7th of the year to cut the lead to one. The assists would go to former Bronco Brycen Martin, as well as Jake Kustra. It would be the first WHL point for Kustra, who was playing his first WHL game as well.
“I thought he played well,” said Brockman. “There are always nerves during your first game, but Jake looked like he belonged out there. We expect big things out of him going forward, and he showed his skill tonight.”
The score would stay that way until midway through the second. With a scrum for the puck in front of the Blades net, DeBrusk would find it and bury his second of the game to give the Broncos a two goal lead.
The Blades would battle valiantly in the third, trading late goals with the Broncos but Swift Current would hang on to win, 4-2.
“It was a tough one,” said Brockman. “They outworked us, they outshot us, and we let them push us around. We need to shake it off, try get one back tomorrow.”
The Blades will host the Calgary Hitmen on Sunday.
