There were more than a few explosions at the Credit Union iPlex tonight.

The local crowd came to life as their WHL team piled up goals and shortly after the game celebrated together in the arena's lobby as the Toronto Blue Jays pulled off an extra innings win in MLB's wildcard match-up.

The Swift Current Broncos scored four times in 3:30 late in the second period to blow by the Portland Winterhawks 7-3 tonight.

"I thought our guys were loose, full of energy and basically skated them into the ground," said Broncos assistant coach Jamie Heward. "That's how we want to play all year."

The two teams had been enjoying an exciting back and forth game before the Broncos exploded offensively to pull from up 3-2 to 7-2 with goals by Tyler Steenbergen, Aleksi Heponiemi and Glenn Gawdin twice.

"They're very run and gun," Heward said. "We were just really diligent of having a third guy high and making sure we were backchecking with a purpose. We turned a couple pucks over and started to put pressure back on them. Took us a little while to get pucks to the net and really get some traffic. Once we did it really benefitted us and I think our guys realized if they came back and worked hard turning pucks over they could have a good night offensively."

Artyom Minulin led the way with a goal and three assists. Gawdin and Lane Pederson each had three point nights.

It was the first win at home for the Broncos and moved their record to 4-2 on the season. The Broncos coaches have really liked the way they've played in their wins, while they've been really frustrated with their play in those two losses. They're looking to walk the fine line of playing a skill game while still recognizing when you have to make the simple plays.

"It's the difference between giving coaches gray hair and regular hair," Heward joked. "Skilled hockey players are skilled for a reason and you never want to take that away from guys. There's a time where you have to dump pucks in and create a forecheck, but I'll tell you what when you have guys that have really good skill and really good hands you don't want to take that away from them. When we're working hard we have no problem with them trying to make plays."

Swift Current opened the scoring on Riley Stotts' first career WHL goal. He deflected a Kade Jensen point shot to turn things around quickly after Portland was the early aggressor.

"It's a cool experience and it's obviously a special moment," Stotts said. "It was a good shot by (Jensen) and I was just able to get a piece of it."

The 16-year-old rookie felt they played the right way throughout the game.

"We're just doing all the little things right," Stotts said. "In the games we won we stick to our system, come to the rink positive and done all the little things played our roles and everyone has done their little piece of the game."

Heponiemi also scored his first career goal in the win.

Skyler McKenzie tied the game up for Portland after a rebound and scramble around the net left him wide open in what was a fast-paced first period.

Minulin pulled Swift Current ahead early in the second period on a very nice feed from Gawdin. Pederson then went coast-to-coast a few minutes later to extend the Broncos' advantage.

Portland nearly turned the game around when Colton Veloso struck for a shorthanded goal and moments after that Winterhawks goaltender Michael Bullion stole a goal from Stotts. Swift Current stuck with it and that's when they floodgates opened for their four goals at the end of the second period.

Travis Chld made 33 saves for the Broncos to earn his fourth straight victory to start the season.

Broncos associate coach Ryan Smith and Heward ran the bench for Swift Current as Manny Viveiros was away at the WHL Board of Governors meeting.

The Broncos are in Brandon on Friday, host Prince Albert on Saturday and then welcome Kootenay to the Credit Union iPlex on Thanksgiving Monday.