Broncos Drop First in Home and Home

Miles Koules scored the winner in the shootout as the Medicine Hat Tigers beat the Broncos 2-1 on Friday night in Swift Current. The win in the first half of a home-and-home series put the Tigers 2 points up on the Broncos for 6th in the Eastern Conference.

"It was a tough game," said Broncos Assistant Coach Darren Evjen. "Very similar to what you go through in playoffs there wasn't a bunch of room out there."

Eetu Laurikainen made 39 saves in a losing cause for the Broncos.

"We played alright," Laurikainen said. "We played great defence and they didn't get many shots from the slot, they were outside shots, but we need to score more goals that's for sure."

The Broncos have now only scored once or twice in each of their last four games. Captain Adam Lowry had Swift Current's only goal in both the game and the shootout. Lowry has scored 4 of the last 5 Bronco goals.

"No team is going to survive playing that way," Evjen said. "We need more guys diving in and they know that. We need to get more pucks to the net and we've got to get harder in front of the net."

Lowry opened the scoring by deflecting in a Richard Nedomlel point shot on the power play for his 40th of the season. He's only the third player in the WHL to reach the 40 goal mark this season.

Medicine Hat responded on a power play of their on in the second period when Logan McVeigh's shot bounced off a block right back to him and he beat Laurikainen low on the blocker hand side. The Tigers fired 16 shots on goal in the second period compared to only 5 for Swift Current.

Both teams slowed the pace down in the third period with few scoring chances and not many risks. The Broncos had the best chances of overtime but couldn't beat Marek Langhammer. The Czech netminder is 2-0 against Swift Current.

Lowry scored the only Broncos goal in the shootout, while Curtis Valk and Koules tallied for Medicine Hat. The Tigers are 5-1 in shootouts this season and the Broncos are only 2-4.

The two teams meet again Saturday night in Medicine Hat.

You can hear the game on The Eagle 94.1 FM with The New Pioneer Co-op Home Centre Broncos Hockey at 8pm.

Click here for the boxscore