Calvin Spencer ripped home a one-timer with 3:24 to go in the third period as the Swift Current Broncos topped Prince Albert 4-3.
"(Heponiemi) made a great pass and he's a great guy to play with," Spencer said. "He gave me the puck and I just tried throwing it towards the net and it happened to go in."
Aleksi Heponiemi had three assists on the night to lead the way for the Broncos.
"He sees the game real well," said Broncos associate coach Ryan Smith. "Tonight he was a big part of what we were doing. A distributor is a real good way to put it. He's a pass first kind of guy and you just have to have your stick ready like Calvin did."
The win came after Swift Current couldn't hold a late lead in a shootout loss in Brandon last night.
"It was a big win especially after last game," Spencer said. "We knew it was going to be a hard game as they've been struggling and they're still a great hockey team. It was just a hard fought battle the whole time."
Swift Current was on fire to start the game and could have had a big lead after the first period if not for 19 saves from Raiders goaltender Ian Scott.
"I thought we started tremendously," Smith said. "We were just faster to loose pucks, jumpin in holes and making plays. We had a ton of shots and we had a ton of traffic. Any secondary races or secondary battles we were quicker to the puck."
Arthur Miller opened the scoring swatting a puck in from down on the ice for his third of the season.
Swift Current product Tim Vanstone responded off a turnover with his second of the season for the Raiders and a 1-1 game after twenty minutes of play.
Max Lajoie gave the Broncos a lead early in the second period just as their power play expired with a shot from the middle of the point through traffic.
The Raiders responded right away on a Luke Coleman deflection and it was 2-2 heading to the third period.
"We got into a couple penalties in the second period and we did tire a little bit," Smith said. "It's not that we felt we were giving up a lot but it's one of those games where (Ian Scott) was good he gave them a chance to win all night. I felt like we played a real solid game and dominated at times but you look up at the scoreboard and it's 2-2."
Prince Albert got their first lead of the game on the power play when Austin Glover deflected a Vojtech Budik point shot by Taz Burman.
Riley Stotts then tied the game back up on a Broncos power play taking a feed from Heponiemi and firing a puck through Scott for his fourth goal in three games.
Spencer's game winner then gave the Broncos their third lead of the game and they battled to the final buzzer to hold on.
"I liked our response," Smith said. "I don't think there was any quit. You had two teams that were just gutting it out at the end."
Burman made 29 saves to earn his first win of the season as the Broncos moved to 5-2-0-1. Scott stopped 35 shots for the Raiders.
Swift Current went 1 for 3 on the power play while holding Prince Albert to 1 for 6.
The next action for the Broncos is their annual Pink the Rink game for breast cancer research on Monday afternoon against the Kootenay Ice.
Wed, Apr 24, 5:30 PM
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