Glenn Gawdin (photo by Darwin Knelsen from scbroncos.com)

The Saskatoon Blades struck early and often as the Swift Current Broncos suffered a rare blowout loss at a crucial time in their season.

Ryan Graham opened the scoring only 16 seconds into the game and the Blades kept coming on the way to a 12-6 win on Friday night.

"You start the game off giving up a goal," said Broncos associate coach Ryan Smith. "We never recovered from that and we got away from a lot of things we've been doing well of late."

"A loss is a loss, but these ones are tough to take. So much went wrong for us."

Saskatoon swept the home and home with the Broncos and now sit a point behind Swift Current for 9th in the WHL Eastern Conference.

The Broncos are still 8 points back of Edmonton for the 8th and final playoff spot with 15 games left to play.

"It's one of those games you want to scrap," Smith said. "But it's very hard to get out of your mind. Everybody wearing white tonight understands they weren't good and they've got to come back, respond and be back here tomorrow night to play the game of their life."

"After a loss like this you need a response."

After their third straight loss this week the Broncos can respond quickly when they host the Kootenay Ice.

Even during their recent run of success Swift Current has had some slower start. That really bit them against the Blades on Friday.

"You're either ready to play or you're not ready to play," Smith says. "It's starts the night before with a good approach to the game. I think some of our guys need to adjust their prep. Tonight I think we got away from the game plan. We sure froze in the first period when we started to unravel."

Turning it around will take a focus on trusting their systems and taking care of the little things.

"We've got to get back to the basics," Smith said. "It starts with hard work and a good attitude."

Jon Martin, Lane Pederson, Jamal Watson, Scott Feser, Glenn Gawdin and Tyler Steenbergen scored for Swift Current in a losing cause.

The line of Graham, Connor Gay and Cameron Hebig combined for 12 points for Saskatoon.

A busy weekend continues for Swift Current hosting Kootenay on Saturday and visiting Moose Jaw on Sunday. You can hear both games live on The Eagle 94.1 FM.