Giorgio Estephan and Aleksi Heponiemi each had three points and Colby Sissons scored twice as the Swift Current Broncos survived a late onslaught to beat Portland 5-3.

The Broncos have now won six straight games including the first two games of their US Division road swing.

“There was a pretty good pace to the game,” said Broncos Associate Coach Ryan Smith. “Special teams were a big factor... both ways. They have a good team and we expected a good game tonight. Both goalies played well. It was a tight game.”

Stuart Skinner made 34 saves to earn his fourth straight win since joining the Broncos.

The Broncos had a 4-2 lead late and Portland struck once with their goaltender pulled to close the gap. It was two more tense minutes before Tanner Nagel was able to salt the game away into an empty net.

“The last two minutes were pretty good,” Smith said. “We don't want to give up that one... but they do have an extra guy and that's going to happen. They did have good possession, but we kept them to the outside, blocked some shots... we need to know how to win those games and that was important that we held off and got the two points.”

The Broncos got a lot done around the net against Portland with Estephan scoring an early goal on a wrap-around, Beck Malenstyn putting the Broncos ahead for good early in the third on the rebound of a Josh Anderson shot, and Sissons' second goal coming in large part thanks to a Glenn Gawdin screen on the power play.

“You have to have that every day pucks and people to the net,” Smith said. “Sometimes it's not all going to be like Sissons' (first) goal where it's tic-tac-toe, it's shooting and rebounds and off a body. Those are the ones that are hard to defend because you just outwork your opponent.”

Portland played the game without top forwards Cody Glass and Keiffer Bellows.

The Broncos were without 30-goal scorer Matteo Gennaro in the game after he appeared to hurt himself hitting the net in Tri-City after his partial break was interrupted. As a result they had all new lines for the game that started with Malenstyn/Gawdin/Steenbergen, Heponiemi/Estephan/Elder, Patterson/Fyten/Nagel with Regnier and Gable as two parts of a fourth line. By the third period Heponiemi and Malenstyn had switched places to re-united Swift Current's usual top line.

Only four games after the trades to add Fyten, Nagel and Estephan the Broncos are going to take their time in finding the right line chemistry.

“We have the luxury of a couple months to see if we can find the right combinations,” Smith said. “Right now it's good because if one line is struggling offensively the other one is there, but they're still playing good defence. We'll move guys around throughout this process until we find the right combination that gives us the best chance to win night in and night out.”

Estephan's goal was his 300th WHL point, while the assist on that goal extended Heponiemi's point streak to 26 games.

The Broncos now sit at 33-10-3-0 and remain 8 points back of Moose Jaw for top spot in the WHL with a game in hand. They're now 9 points up on Brandon for second place in the East Division.

Swift Current continues their US Division road swing against Seattle on Saturday night. The Thunderbirds are the defending WHL champions and have won 7 of their last 10 games.

The Broncos also feature a few former Thunderbirds as Sahvan Khaira, Kaden Elder and MacKenie Weight started their careers in Seattle.

Listen live to Robertson Family Group Broncos Hockey at 8:30pm on The Eagle 94.1 FM.