Jayden Halbgewachs scored three times and added two assists as the Moose Jaw Warriors scored early and often in a 7-4 win over Swift Current.

“Not very happy with the result or with the way the game went for us,” said Broncos associate coach Ryan Smith. “They deserved the points. They outplayed us. Hungrier, faster, stronger.”

The Warriors took advantage of their depth as every one of the forwards on their top two lines put up at least two points in the victory.

Swift Current did manage to score first as Logan Foster put home a nice feed from Logan Barlage for his second goal in three games. That push from the fourth line was the only sign of life Smith saw from the Broncos' depth.

“They got an early goal that was nice,” Smith said. “But there was way too many guys tonight that weren't in the game. Again our top line was pretty good scored some goals. After that... nothing. There was a lot of passengers. No enthusiasm and no fire in the belly. You're playing your arch rival and we play a pretty blah game. It's hard to comprehend.”

Moose Jaw went 2 for 3 on the power play in the first period to pull ahead 3-2 as the Broncos struggled to get any flow to their game.

“They had eight minutes in the power play in the first period,” Smith said. “You can't get into the game and you can't use all the guys. It's tough. You give up a couple on the PK and start to unravel a little bit.”

The Warriors finished 3 for 6 on the man advantage including a key power-play goal midway through the third period to pull away.

“I think we feel like our guys didn't listen to what we were trying to tell them,” Smith said. “They ran the same play every single time and they scored on it twice. If you're not going to listen and not going to follow the plan good teams like this will break you down.”

Swift Current's top line still came to play combining for 3 goals and 7 points in the loss. Tyler Steenbergen scored his league-leading 27th and 28th of the season and added an assist that has him a single point up on Aleksi Heponiemi for the WHL lead in points. Heponiemi had a goal and an assist, while Glenn Gawdin chipped in two helpers.

Logan Flodell stopped 34 of 41 Moose Jaw shots in a game the Broncos will spend some time reviewing this week.

“There's lots of teaching points and learning points from this game,” Smith said. “It's unusual for us to give up this many goals. We're not used to that and that's not the way we want to play.”

Swift Current was again missing Artyom Minulin from their lineup with an upper-body injury. The Russian defenceman could return to action on the weekend.

Moose Jaw had five regulars out of their lineup due to injury.

The Warriors move to 16-4-0-0 and lead the WHL East Division by five points over Swift Current with two games in hand. The Broncos sit at 13-4-1-0 and head to Medicine Hat on Friday before hosting Calgary on Saturday and visiting Brandon on Sunday.