The Swift Current Broncos played well but couldn't overcome two disallowed goals in the third period as they fell 4-2 to the Regina Pats.

Down 3-1 after the second period the Broncos thought they had scored twice on a third period power play and had both opportunities waved off. They did eventually close the game to 3-2 before giving up a late empty-net goal.

“Super frustrating to come out with a loss when we certainly played well enough to at least get a point and potentially win,” said Broncos assistant coach Jamie Heward. “A lot of hockey in the last little while so the coaching staff is extremely happy with the effort and the way the guys played. Really coming together as a team at the right time.”

“That's a really good hockey team and you've got to be on your A game to even stay close to them. I thought we even at times outplayed them. We deserved a better outcome. One of those things.”

Lane Pederson scored both Swift Current goals in a game they felt they could have had.

“Disappointing,” Pederson said. “It's frustrating. Two disallowed goals we feel were right there and should have counted. You can't control what the refs are going to call and we came up short tonight. We'll learn from it and have a better effort next time.”

The Broncos were playing their fourth game in five nights and faced a lot of adversity throughout the night that they kept battling through.

“The first shot that they took goes in and it really could have gone south from there,” Heward said. “That's a well rested hockey team and we're coming off a lot of minutes and it could have gone bad. You've got to give the guys a lot of credit. We're growing as a team. A lot of adversity today. Disallowed goals disappointing at every level. Our guys did a great job of taking it, battling through it and we were right there until the very end.”

After Bryan Lockner opened the scoring for the Pats, Broncos forward Owen Blocker was called for a five minute major kneeing penalty. His hit knocked Pats defenceman Sergey Zborovskiy out of the game with a lower body injury.

Swift Current responded by killing off the Regina power play and Pedereson struck soon after with a deflection of a Colby Sissons shot.

“Obviously there's positives in the way we played tonight,” Pederson said. “I think we did show that we can compete and outplay the top team in the league. Moving forward we have to just continue to play that way and we should be rewarded.”

Regina struck twice in the second period on goals by Dawson Leedahl and rookie Riley Krane. Swift Current outshot the Pats 12-7 in the period and outplayed them, but couldn't capitalize on any of their opportunities. They felt they really limited Regina's high quality scoring chances throughout the night.

“I thought we did a better job in our own end tonight of taking time and space away and really crowding them,” Heward said. “I thought we back checked really hard to make sure they didn't have odd man rushes. When we did break down we were really desperate. I thought our puck play tonight was really good. We're really happy with the way the guys played tonight. At the end of the day we did everything to win this hockey game and unfortunately there were a couple guys on the ice who took it away from us and that's too bad.”

The Broncos thought they had closed the game to 3-2 midway through the third period when Tyler Steenbergen drove the net and had the puck bounce in off his skate. The officials waved the goal off citing Steenbergen bumping into goaltender Tyler Brown as interfering with his ability to make the save.

Moments later Aleksi Hepniemi banked a puck under Brown that the video goal judge reviewed and didn't find conclusive evidence to call a goal.

The Broncos kept coming and eventually did get their second goal when Pederson banged home a Max Lajoie rebound on the power play. Swift Current pushed hard to tie the game until Wyatt Sloboshan put it out of reach with an empty-net goal.

Despite the loss the Broncos still feel like they've shown they could compete with the league leading Pats should they ever come up against them in the post-season.

“Every guy in that room has the confidence that we can beat these guys if it comes down to a playoff series,” Pederson said. “We're not looking too far ahead from the first round and the match up we have there, but if it comes down to it I think everyone in the room and even the fans in this rink have seen what we can do and believe we can beat these guys.”

Taz Burman made 29 saves for the Broncos in a losing cause. Swift Current fired 38 shots on Brown.

The Broncos went 1 for 5 on the power play and held Regina to 0 for 2.

The loss snapped Swift Current's winning streak at five games. The Broncos play a home-and-home with the Saskatoon Blades this weekend starting on Friday in Saskatoon.