The Swift Current Broncos found some offensive spark this weekend against the league's top team.

Unfortunately for the rebuilding team, Prince Albert was able to counter that with an impressive attack of their own.

The Raiders topped Swift Current 6-4 on Friday in a fight filled affair before beating the Broncos 7-5 on Saturday night in their final games before the Chirstmas break.

"They're a pretty good hockey team and they controlled the play quite a bit," said Broncos Head Coach.Director of Hockey Operations Dean Brockman. "I give our guys credit they battled pretty hard and stayed focus before the Christmas break. We got five goals which I'll take that any day. We've just got to make sure we're defending a lot better."



Prince Albert took an early lead as Sean Montgomery one-timed in the 'Teddy Bear Toss' goal 4:48 in.

Swift Current tied it back up with Dawson Springer struck on the rebound of an Alec Zawatsky shot. The 16-year-old just signed a WHL contract earlier this week and scored in his first game as an affiliate player. The leading goal scorer in the Saskatchean Midget AAA league showed why the Broncos acquired him from Everett in the Max Patterson deal.

"What you're going to see from him is exactly that," Brockman said. "He's in good spots. He's got a ways to go and he's going to develop more as the year goes on. We don't expect him to score every game, but we expect him to be in good spots. That's what we liked about him... we thought he was a guy that can legit be a scorer in the WHL. I know it's a long ways away, but he showed some signs tonight that he can do it."

The teams then traded goals again as Justin Nachbaur converted a power play rebound for the Raiders, but Ethan O'Rourke quickly tied things up. Ian Briscoe made a nice play off the wall in the neutral zone to create an odd-man rush and set O'Rourke up for his second goal of the season.



Joel Hofer made some outstanding saves out of his 18 in the first period to keep it close including a highlight reel glove save on Montgomery.

Swift Current pulled ahead early in the second period as Joona Kiviniemi finished off a Regnier rebound and then moments later took the shot that led to a Matthew Culling rebound goal. Kiviniemi now has goals in three straight games and 6 points in his last 7 games. The assist was his first in the WHL. Meanwhile, Culling has goals in three of his last four games after ending a long scoring drought.

Their emergence comes at a key time for the Broncos after dealing away veteran scoring leaders like Andrew Fyten this week and Max Patterson the week before.

"When you trade players away you hope other players are going to step up," Brockman said. "For those guys they've got a great opportunity. They're playing in situations and spots in the lineup where they're going to have that ability to score. When you put them there you're always nervous about it because you don't know if it's the best thing to do (for them). When we traded Fyten away earlier in the week I had a little chat with all of them and said this is your time now. You've got so many games in the league now and you know what it's all about. You have to prepare for it and play for it. They did a pretty good job."

That was the end of the night for Raiders goaltender Donovan Buskey who allowed 4 goals on 10 shots to go with the 4 he allowed on 20 shots the night before. The goaltending change seemed to spark the Raiders as they scored four straight goals to storm ahead and lead 6-4 after the second period.

"We've been having trouble all year long after we score a goal that next shift is so important," Brockman said. "We just seemed to lose momentum every time we scored a goal. We didn't raise our level of play. When you're playing against really good teams you have to raise that level of play right away because you know they're going to want to get one."

Alec Zawatsky scored in a 5 on 3 early in the third period to make it interesting again, but the Raiders pulled away one last time on a Parker Kelly wrap-around goal.

Ethan Regnier had 2 assists in the game and has put up 7 points over his last 7 games. That's something the Broncos are hoping they can see more out of Regnier as he moves to a bigger role on the team.

"I have really high expectations for him," Brockman said. "He's a guy when he skates like he does it's a threat every time. We want to put him in those offensive roles. When we had him with Nagel and Fyten I thought we suppressed it a little bit. We're going to need offence from him down the road. Not only the second half of the year but into next year. We've got to get his confidence going and put him in situations where he can succeed and get goals."

Hofer stopped 49 of the 56 shots he faced as he battled to keep his team in the game despite a consistent attack from the Raiders. He finishes the first half with a save percentage just a hair under 900 despite facing an average of 41.5 shots per game.

The Broncos were missing Garrett Sambrook, Carter Chorney and Eric Houk to injury. All three could be back after the Christmas break.

Swift Current will be back in action on December 27th when they visit Moose Jaw. They will host the Warriors on December 28th and Saskatoon on December 30th.