It wasn't quite a classic chapter of the Swift Current/Regina rivalry on Saturday night.

Max Paddock made 20 saves for the shutout as the Pats beat the Broncos 2-0 in a game that didn't have much life from either team.

"We were flat right off the bat," said Broncos assistant coach Scott Dutertre. "It wasn't our most exciting game. Both sides I thought it started out a little bit slow. We were both kind of battling the puck both ways. We tried to make some adjustments in the second and things seemed to pick up a little bit, but not as much life as we've typically had in the last few games."



Regina pulled ahead late in a first period that didn't feature many chances. Austin Pratt found Jake Leschyshyn going to the net in the final minute of the period and fed him the puck for a deflection that opened the scoring. The Pats would add another one early in the second period as Scott Mahovlich deflected in a Brady Pouteau point shot.

That's all the offence Regina needed in a game that lacked much flow or consistent attack.

"It was just one of those weird nights," Dutertre said. "It looked like a game of hack-and-whack. We were just firing pucks back and forth. Nobody had real good possession."

The Broncos had only six shots on net through the first 35 minutes of the game and seemed to find a spark when they juggled their lines. Matthew Culling moved to the wing with Andrew Fyten and Tanner Nagel, while Joona Kiviniemi joined Max Patterson and Ben King. The injection of the two rookies seemed to energize those lines.

"We've had consistent effort out of our 20-year-olds," Dutertre said. "Nagel and Fyten work hard every night. We've had consistent work ethic out of Matthew Culling too so we just figured putting those three together would create a little bit of energy for us. It did give us a little bit of a boost. Even in third period we moved Christian Riemer up on the wing as well with (O'Rourke and Waitzner) and they seemed to generate some traffic in the offensive zone."

Swift Current came close on several occasions during 15 minute stretch from late in the second period to early in the third. Their momentum was halted by two late penalties from Noah King and Alex Moar. Once they killed off the Regina power plays there just wasn't enough time to claw back.

Ben King's point streak was halted at three games although he had two of Swift Current's best chances late in both the second and third periods.

Isaac Poulter made 22 saves in the loss and had another strong outing early in his rookie campaign.

"You can't say enough about our goaltenders this year," Dutertre said. "He showed really good poise. I always like watching his preparation before games. He's constantly talking with (Joel Hofer) too. The relationship those two have and the lines of communication they have... it's invaluable to him."

The Broncos lost Eric Houk after he scrapped Carter Massier in the second period.

They were also without Matthew Stanley (sick), Owen Blocker (day-to-day) and Garrett Sambrook (day-to-day). Those injuries left the Broncos with four rookies and two sophomores on their blue line tonight.

Swift Current finishes off a busy weekend schedule by hosting Red Deer at 4pm on Sunday afternoon. Both teams will be playing their third game in three days.

"Third game in three days we don't want to play conservative and safe," Dutertre said. "But we have to play within our boundaries too and pick our spots and be a little more opportunistic tomorrow to generate offence."

You can listen to our broadcast of Robertson Family Group Broncos Hockey at 3:30pm on The Eagle 94.1 FM.