The Swift Current Broncos managed to bend but not break for most of the game tonight.

That was until 22.3 seconds left in the third period when Josh Prokop's centering feed deflected in off Alex Moar to give Calgary their first lead of the game and a 3-2 win.

It was a tough way to lose for a young Broncos roster that battled hard on the road and were very close to forcing another overtime in a game they were outshot.

It took until 14:39 of the second period for anyone to score as Ethan O'Rourke followed up on a puck knocked off of Tanner Nagel's stick and quickly slid it five-hole on Jack McNaughton for his first as a Bronco.

Calgary only needed 1:22 to tie it right back up when former Swift Current first round draft pick Riley Stotts deflected a James Malm shot from chest high down between Isaac Poulter's legs.



Swift Current again took the lead midway through he third period when Joona Kiviniemi took advantage of a Calgary turnover and battled two Hitmen players across the crease to tuck in his 6th of the season. This time it was only 42 seconds later when Calgary tied it up again on an Egor Zamula point shot.

"Tanner Nagel said it best in the room," said Broncos assistant coach Scott Dutertre. "You get a goal and that next shift is the one that determines what's going to happen. We just couldn't keep that momentum. They swung it away from us when they'd score right after. That's a huge shift right after a goal and we didn't respond."



While the Broncos were badly outshot they did work to keep Calgary to the outside of their net. They also felt they didn't do enough to create a counter-attack and generate time in the offensive zone.

"We need to make better reads," Dutertre said. "We weren't as strong on the wall tonight. Just making reads and anticipating plays... the other thing I thought we did a great job of the other night against Prince Albert is that we could win some of those battles on the wall, we kept control of the puck and getting it out. We just didn't do that tonight. Instead of making sure we got pucks out and kept the puck going north, we tried to go east/west with it and kept it in a lot of the time."

Poulter made 42 saves to keep his team in the game and move his save percentage up to an impressive 0.915 in his first eight career starts.

"Poults was unreal," Duetertre said. "That save he made in the second period (on Stotts) that's got to make a play of the week."

Carter Chorney made his debut for the Broncos after being acquired from Spokane earlier this week. The Broncos were without veterans Andrew Fyten (flu) and Matthew Stanley (upper body) for the game against Calgary.



Swift Current visits Red Deer on Saturday night. We'll have the call with Robertson Family Group Broncos Hockey at 7:30pm.