The Central Division crown is still up for grabs after Friday night as the Swift Current Broncos fell to the Medicine Hat Tigers 4-2.

A Broncos win would’ve claimed the title, but after the result on Friday, the two teams are separated by just one point. The Broncos do hold the advantage with two games in hand on the Tigers.

Meanwhile, the game on the ice was a back-and-forth affair, with both teams getting chances throughout the contest, even though the Broncos were outshot 37-30 in the game.

Things were tied at 0-0 after 20 minutes and then tied 1-1 after 40 minutes as the teams swapped goals in the middle frame with Andrew Basha scoring on the powerplay for the Tigers and Mat Ward capitalizing on a Josh Filmon pass, less than a minute after the Tigers scored.

In the third, the Tigers took the lead on another powerplay goal, this one from Hunter St. Martin, but just 1:40 later, the Broncos responded with a Conor Geekie powerplay goal. The two teams went back and forth in the frame, but it was Hayden Harsanyi scoring on a breakaway for the Tigers to make it 3-2.

The Broncos had chances late, but Zach Zahara shut the door for Medicine Hat, while Basha added one more into the empty net to cap off the night.

Broncos Assistant Coach Regan Darby said they played a tough road game and gave themselves an opportunity to win.

“It’s a playoff-type game,” Darby said. “I thought we had chances to go ahead in the game and didn’t capitalize on them and Medicine Hat, they had a lot of energy tonight.”

Powerplays were aplenty in this one as well as the Broncos were 3-for-5 on the penalty kill and 1-for-5 on the powerplay. Darby added that the special teams were a decider in the game.

“Things could have been a little bit different there,” he said. “But both teams are missing a few players. Things could be different here going into the playoffs with a full lineup too.”

The Broncos are back in action on Sunday evening as they visit the Edmonton Oil Kings.