Scoring may not come easily for the Swift Current Broncos this season.

Tonight's 5-1 pre-season win over Lethbridge is a reminder that there's still enough talent to light the lamp when they play the right way.

Swift Current bounced back from a 7-0 loss on Friday in Lethbridge with their best performance of the exhibition schedule in a convincing home-ice victory.

"It's huge," said Broncos assistant coach Scott Dutertre. "We've been preaching it's going to be a process. This isn't the same crew that was here last year and we're going to have to have a bit more of a junkyard dog mentality. We're going to have to just get opportunities pucks to the net and be able to jump on secondary pucks. I thought we did a great job of that tonight."



The response after a tough loss the night before was key.

"We just came here and wanted to turn that around and have a good finish here," said Broncos defenceman Connor Horning. "We're not going to be the kind of team that wins games 6-5, but obviously getting five tonight is a good feeling for sure."



"I think we were a focused crew today," Dutertre said. "Before the game we talked about upping the intensity. It wasn't the best effort last night. We just weren't working smart, so we just talked about trying to take care of our end first and foremost and from there it kind of took care of itself."

The improvements for Swift Current started in their own zone. They cut down shots allowed from 49 to 24 and limited second chances against.

"Just calmed things down," Dutertre noted. "I thought we were a little bit jumpy last night. Tonight I thought we settled down. We were playing a little bit more physical I thought too. We got in the shooting lanes and let (goaltender Isaac Poulter) see what was in front of him."

The game didn't start as strong as it finished. Lethbridge opened the scoring on a deflected Ty Prefontaine shot and outshot the Broncos 12-4 in the first period.

Swift Current started to come around when veteran forward Ethan O'Rourke went hard into the boards on a major penalty to Alex Cotton for boarding. Although O'Rouke played one more shift, he then sat out for the remainder of the game. The Broncos seemed to respond to that hit with some extra motivation and two power play goals during the major.

"We were just thankful that Ethan was OK," Dutertre noted. "It was kind of a nasty one. We just decided to capitalize. It lit a fire for the guys for sure. We got lots of pucks to the net and lots of secondary stuff. Lots of rebounds and that type of thing. re did a lot of great work at practice focusing on it."

Alec Zawatsky showed why the Broncos picked him up this week by wiring home the tying goal with a slap shot from the top right circle. Just over a minute later, Swift Current took the lead when Ben King completed a give-and-go with Noah King by lifting a shot over Hurricanes goaltender Carl Tetachuk. They outshot the Hurricanes 18-3 and took over the pace of the game.

That continued early in the third period as Matthew Culling scored the first of his two goals on the night on the rebound of a Tanner Nagel shot. Culling ended up scoring twice and adding an assist in the third period alone.

"With Ethan going out I talked to him at the start of the period just to say he'd be logging a little bit more ice," "I don't know if that's what did it for him, but he did a great job for us. He seemed to have a lot more poise. He took his shots and picked good spots."

Culling's shot also led to a Nagel rebound goal and his scond goal came off an excellent Alex Thacker forecheck.

Rookie goaltender Isaac Poulter made 23 saves to earn the win after stopping 42 pucks last night.

"He played a great game for us," Dutertre said. "He had a lot of poise. When we watched video last night he was having a hard time seeing... tonight we settled things down and our defence did a good job trying to clear the front and let him see."

Nagel and Max Pattereson each had two point games.

The Broncos finished the pre-season 1-3, but won their lone game on home ice. Now they prepare for the start of the regular season on Friday against Saskatoon. That opening game will also include a ceremony to raise the 2018 WHL Championship banner.