Joel Hofer made 34 saves including a few highlight stops as his Swift Current Broncos fell 2-1 to Saskatoon on opening night in the WHL regular season.

It was a special night in Swift Current as the Broncos raised their WHL Championship banner into the rafters and then turned the page on the start of a new era with a young roster.

"We're a young team and got some stuff to work on," said veteran forward Kaden Elder. "We worked hard tonight. We battled. Pucks didn't bounce or way sometimes and we had a good game. For our first game with a lot of young guys there's obviously a lot of nerves coming into this game. We played well. We'll regroup and follow those details tomorrow."



Scoring chances were few and far between in the first half of the game as both teams took away time and space with solid defensive play.

Swift Current broke through for the opening goal of the season when Elder drove home the rebound of an Alec Zawatsky shot. It was the first regular season point for Zawatsky since joining the Broncos from Saskatoon in the pre-season.

That lead lasted only 21 seconds as Max Gerlach drove Connor Horning into the boards at the Swift Current bench and then converted a breakaway to tie the game. The hit ended up sending Horning face-first into the boards and left the Broncos scratching their heads at the lack of penalty call.

"The guys battled hard," said Broncos assistant coach Brandin Cote. "I think there was a bit of a non-call that led to their first goal... we just couldn't find a way to really sustain any pressure in the third period towards the end. I think overall we think we're headed in the right direction. It was good to get our feet wet."

Swift Current had a good start to the third period with some early pressure in the Saskatoon zone. The Blades put a stop to that when Gerlach converted a bouncing puck that Kirby Dach threw into Swift Current's crease and Saskatoon took a 2-1 lead.

The goal again came with some controversy as it appeared the Blades had entered the zone offside.

The rest of the third period was right out of the playbook of new Blades coach Mitch Love's old team in Everett. Saskatoon kept possession of the puck, limited turnovers and didn't let the Broncos generate any sustained pressure in an attempt to tie the game.

"We're not going to score easy and that's just the reality of the situation," Cote said. "We have find ways to create offense and generate things in the offensive zone. That's a matter of just being responsible with the puck, getting pucks behind their D and getting traffic. We'll continue to work on that. Our goaltender had a phenomenal performance tonight, but at the same time we're not going to be able to rely on that every night."

Noaln Maier made 15 saves to earn the win for Saskatoon.

Neither team scored on the power play as Swift Current went 0 for 2 and Saskatoon 0 for 3.

The Broncos scratched veteran Andrew Fyten as they are carrying four healthy overage players and he was the odd man out on this night. They are also waiting for veteran defenceman Artyom Minulin to get healthy after off season surgery before finalizing their overage and import slots.

Tonight's game was the regular season debut for Dean Brockman and his re-shaped hockey operations staff in Swift Current. It was also the head coaching debut of former Broncos defenceman Mitch Love with Saskatoon.

Swift Current heads to Saskatoon tomorrow night for a re-match. You can catch the game live on The Eagle 94.1 FM with Robertson Family Group Broncos Hockey at 6:30pm.