The Swift Current Broncos came out flying and had one of their most complete efforts of the season, but it wasn't quite enough in a 2-1 shootout loss to the Kootenay Ice.

Swift Current carried a 1-0 lead into the last five minutes of the third period. That's when Kootenay's NHL prospects took over as Peyton Krebs made a great play to set up Brett Davis for the tying goal on the power play. Those two also scored in the shootout to ensure the Ice took home the extra point.

The Broncos fired 41 shots on net and had the better of the play for most of the night. In the end they just couldn't cash in on enough of their chances.

"We had a lot of energy all the way through," said Broncos assistant coach Scott Dutertre. "That's where we need to build from. Whatever we're doing we need that jump. We need to take advantage of some secondary pucks. Now we're getting some shots on net. If we can keep building off those little things and start to take advantage of those secondary pucks... when those rebounds are there we seem to be a little delayed. If we can get the jump on those and get a couple of them going in..."



It was maybe Swift Current's best start of the season as they came flying out of their room with 20 first period shots, physical play and a lot of offensive zone time.

"Tonight we had a really good first period," Dutertre said. "We came out with a lot of intensity, got a lot of pucks on net and we got some more shots than we usually have... I think we showed a little more resilience tonight."

Ethan Regnier opened the scoring for the Broncos sliding a puck through the five hole of Kootenay goaltender Jesse Makaj. He has a strong game with a few scoring chances including a partial break he wasn't able to finish.

"We came out hard," Regnier said. "That's the first time in a while we've done that and got pucks to the net. We played a solid (65) minutes but just came up short."



The Broncos had slower starts to both the second and third periods, but recovered to keep putting pressure on the Ice with a number of high quality scoring chances. They just were not able to get the insurance goal they needed.

Ben King hit posts both in the third period and on a four minute 4 on 3 overtime power play to nearly give the Broncos their first home win of the season. They had several good opportunities on that power play, but were not able to pull the trigger.

The man advantage is now 8 for 64 on the season for the Broncos and has struggled to find the net since returning from their long road swing.

"The power play moves the puck well we're just not quite capitalizing," Dutertre said. "We're just not quite capitalizing. We're hitting a lot of posts and things. We're hoping the hockey gods could give us some bounces too."



The game was a strong rebound effort for Swift Current after losing 7-1 in Regina on Sunday.

"I think we're just looking at stepping stones right now," Regnier said. "We got smoked in Regina and we had lots of meetings and figured out what we wanted to do. I think we responded well tonight, just came up short."

Makaj was strong in making 40 saves and shutting the Broncos down in the shootout. Joel Hofer stopped 29 Kootenay shots including some very good chances in a losing cause.

Eric Houk dropped the gloves with Kootenay's Jordan Chudley in what was a physical game for Houk while playing with Matthew Culling and Joona Kiviniemi.

Swift Current had Matthew Stanley back in their lineup after he missed the weekend games due to his grandmother's passing. He helped the whole defensive core to a much improved performance in their own end.

The Broncos continue their three-game home stand on Friday against Lethbridge. They will be wearing special jerseys recognizing both the 1986 Swift Current bus crash and the 2018 Humbolt Broncos bus crash. The jerseys are being auctioned off with proceeds going to STARS.