Late Penalties Hurt Broncos in Loss to Hurricanes
January 3, 2024 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Swift Current Broncos News Release
Lethbridge, Alta. - The Swift Current Broncos dropped their first game of the 2024 portion of their schedule on Wednesday night in Lethbridge, falling 6-3 to the Hurricanes.
While there was no score in the first, the Broncos had some great chances on Harrison Meneghin, but couldn't get one to go as they outshot the Hurricanes 13-10 but played to a 0-0 score.
The second period saw the Broncos take the lead, but only fired five shots on net, scoring twice as Clarke Caswell and Connor Gabriel scored. That sandwiched a Lethbridge Tyson Zimmer goal to draw things to 2-1 after two periods, before things went south for the Broncos.
Broncos Interim Head Coach Taras McEwen said while the second period wasn't their best, they were able to some things well.
"I think we had really good extended offensive zone looks," McEwen said. "We still didn't have probably the net presence that we talked about or were looking for in front of him. I thought we did a really good job defending the rush, killing plays early and we were able to transaction. Then we got a little complacent and a little sloppy with the pucks in some of our reads."
The Broncos ultimately took four penalties in the third period, and ended up giving up three straight powerplay goals between the 4:53 mark of the third, and the 13:35 mark. Brayden Edwards, Logan Wormald, and Zimmer's second of the night were all with the man advantage to give Lethbridge the 4-2 lead.
"We haven't had a third period like that, usually we're pretty strong in the third," McEwen said. "But just a lack of discipline, especially after we had some extended offensive zone shifts, to take a penalty behind the play, just very undisciplined and we've been pretty good in that area, especially late in games but we've got to clean that up."
Elias Knoester added a goal of his owen to make it 5-2 before the Broncos got one back with 2:17 to play in the game off the stick of Connor Hvidston. However, that's all the Broncos could get as Edwards added an empty netter for the Hurricanes.
The Broncos only had one opportunity on the powerplay, going 0-for-1, while Matthew Kieper stopped 33 of 38 in the loss.
Swift Current is back at home for three straight games starting on Friday as they host the Spokane Chiefs.
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