Riley Lamb put on quite a show in front of friends and family tonight.

The Rivers, Manitoba product made 53 saves and two more in the shootout to give the Swift Current Broncos a chance in a 3-2 shootout loss in Brandon. He got quite an ovation from a large contingent of supporters mixed with respectful Wheat Kings fans when announced as the game's firsit star.

"We're fortunate he was on today otherwise it would have been pretty ugly to be honest with you," said Broncos assistant coach Brandin Cote. "Credit goes to him he battled hard and made a lot of key saves. We didn't have it from the start for whatever reason. We stole a point here tonight and probably didn't deserve it, but credit to Lamber for being ready to play."



Lamb made 20 saves in the first period, 18 in the second, 11 in the third and 4 more in overtime on the way to a first star performance on the road. He had several highlight reel stops including a three-on-one save on Stelio Mattheos.

The overage goaltender is now 2-3-0-1 since joining the Broncos as a free agent at the trade deadline.

Joona Kiviniemi and Ethan O'Rourke had Swift Current's goals in coming back from down 2-0 to get a point on the road. Alex Moar had two assists including a big play on O'Rourke's tying goal with 1:20 to play in the third.

"He's got the ability to be a game breaker and he showed that at certain points tonight," Cote said. "His strength has to be better as a smaller guy in the league, but he's coming along well. The reason we got him is just that... he's able to make plays other guys aren't."

Baron Thompson and Braden Schneider had Brandon's goals.



The penalty kill was huge for the Broncos as they killed off all six of Brandon's opportunities on the man advantage.

"The results of it were good," Cote said. "There were a few little technical things I wasn't necessarily as happy with tonight on it. Like the saying goes your goalie has got o be your best penalty killer. We found a way to kill them off. We've got to stay out of the box against teams that have good power plays."

Brandon mostly owned the puck in the first two periods and Lamb kept the Broncos in the game. Swift Current got a big goal late in the second when Kiviniemi ripped his 13th of the season by Ethan Kruger to cut the gap to one and give the Broncos some third period hope.

That's when the Broncos played their best period of the game only being outshot 11-9 despite Brandon getting both power plays in the frame and managed to tie the game.

"They did respond in the third period," Cote said. "We challenged them in the intermission to just go out there and play a solid period. We did play better that way in terms of managing pucks and having better efforts from some guys."

Now the Broncos will have a quick turn-around before hosting Saskatoon at 5pm on Saturday during Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada.

"We're going to get in late and it's going to be a crazy day tomorrow," Cote said. "The hype and the excitement of the whole Hockey Day in Canada thing is great, but we have to make sure we get some rest and get re-focused."

Swift Current's last meeting with Saskatoon was a come-from-behind overtime victory. The Blades will be rested after not playing tonight.

You can hear our broadcast at 4:30pm for Robertson Family Group Broncos Hockey on The Eagle 94.1 FM.