broncos eetu
Eetu Laurikainen (Photo from scbroncos.com)

Eetu Laurikainen made 39 saves as the Swift Current Broncos beat Kootenay 5-2 Friday night.

The Finnish netminder was particularly strong as the Broncos faced two consecutive 5 on 3 power plays in the first period. In all, Laurikainen made 25 first period saves.

"Laurikainen was great tonight and gave us a chance to win in the first period, said Broncos Assistant Coach Darren Evjen. "We were good at penalty killing, but there are times when it breaks down when you're got a 5 on 3 for that long a period back-to-back and they got some chances, but he made some great saves. That's what you need out of your goaltender. Once we got out of penalty troubles I thought we played a good game." Full Audio with Darren Evjen

Jon Martin opened the scoring for Kootenay 2:15 into the first period. He put home a rebound from a Levi Cable shot.

The Broncos struck back less than two minutes later as Levi Bews scored his 6th of the year. Brent Benson earned his first point as a Bronco with an assist on the Bews goal. Swift Current added to their goal total when Chance Lund deflected in a Richard Nedomlel point shot and Reece Scarlett notched his first of the season on the power play before the Broncos got into penalty trouble to wrap up the period.

Dillon Heatherington and Colby Cave later added goals for Swift Current. The Broncos had only scored five times in their previous five games combined.

"I thought we hit the net a lot better," Evjen said. "We got a couple of goals from our D. That's an important part, if they can chip in with one or two it takes the pressure off of our forwards."

Scarlett and Nedomlel each had 2 points in securing the victory. The Broncos went 2 for 3 on the man advantage, while Kootenay went 1 for 6.

Swift Current is in Lethbridge on Saturday night. They will be looking for some payback after losing 4-0 to the Hurricanes on Tuesday. You can hear all the action on The Eagle 94.1 FM with The New Pioneer Co-op Broncos hockey at 6:30pm.

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