Boston Pizza Recap: Birnie comes up clutch in Broncos OT win against Vancouver
Langley, BC – In a milestone game, Brady Birnie would help the Swift Current Broncos to a perfect start on their BC Division peregrination scoring the overtime winner over the Vancouver Giants Sunday night.
The Giants would open the scoring as Ty Halaburda early on in the period at 4:29 would score to make it 1-0 Vancouver beating Broncos goaltender Joey Rocha (Nanaimo, BC). But the Broncos would respond late in the 1st when Josh McGregor (Brandon, MB) would solve Giants netminder Burke Hood at 12:12 from Carlin Dezainde (Calgary, AB) & Luke Mistelbacher (Steinbach, MB). Swift Current would outshoot the Giants 11-8 after the opening frame.
Trae Wilke (Saskatoon, SK) would get his 4th goal as a Bronco at 13:04 from Dezainde & Peyton Kettles (Winnipeg, MB) would get his third point of the road-trip to give Swift Current the 2-1 lead. It wouldn’t last as on a Broncos man-advantage it would be the Giants cashing in as Tyler Thorpe would zip his 19th of the campaign past Joey Rocha to tie the game heading to the third at 17:41.
Swift Current would carry play in the third period but couldn’t solve Burke Hood outshooting Vancouver 11-6 and overtime would be needed. Where in the final 2:30 in his 250th career game, Brady Birnie (Regina, SK)would counter on a Giants turnover and shelf his 21st of the season at 2:27 giving the Broncos their second straight win on the road-trip and 4th straight victory from Grayson Burzynski (Winnipeg, MB).
With the win the Broncos move to 24-18-1-1 on the season and move into 3rd in the East Division just two points back of Saskatoon for 6th in the Eastern Conference. Next up for Swift Current, a passage to Prince George to take-on the Cougars Tuesday night at 9 PM.