Early in the pre-season the Swift Current Broncos are looking to establish their expectations.

A 5-2 exhibition loss to the Moose Jaw Warriors this afternoon didn't live up to that bar.

“The rookie game I was very happy with how the kids played,” said Broncos Coach and Director of Player Personnel Manny Viveiros. “This afternoon in Regina was a complete different story. I was not very happy with the effort of our hockey club. We had quite a few veterans in our lineup and we didn't compete the way I thought we should compete. Regardless of the fact that it's an exhibition game or not that's something our team takes pride in.”

It may only be the pre-season, but the Broncos want to see a lot more from their players while they evaluate who belongs on their roster

“We just lacked intensity and urgency,” Viveiros said. “I'm not really sure why. We had a lot of veteran players in the lineup and you just can't assume you have a position on the hockey team. We have some very good young players who are pushing for a position on the hockey team. If our players aren't competing on a nightly basis we're going to have some really tough decisions to make. We were going to anyway.”

That lack of intensity isn't necessarily a concern yet after a camp the coaching staff was quite happy with.

“For the most part our kids all through camp worked very, very hard,” Viveieros said. “We can chalk it up to a bad day and be better tomorrow against Saskatoon.”

Kole Gable and Kaden Elder scored for Swift Current in the loss. Both 19-year-olds could have an opportunity to play bigger roles this season and contribute more offence. That's not something their coach was thinking about today.

“To be quite honest with you I didn't know who scored,” Viveiros said. “I'm just concentrating on the other aspects of our hockey team. We're analyzing what we accomplished and trying to re-establish our identity.”

Artyom Minulin had two assists for Swift Current in a losing cause. Bailey Brkin made 34 saves on 39 Moose Jaw shots.

Justin Almeida and Luka Burzan each scored twice for Moose Jaw.

The Warriors went 2 for 6 on the power play and held the Broncos to 0 for 4.

The rivals split a two game exhibition set after Swift Current won their rookie game 4-0 on Tuesday.

Pre-season games aren't the only way the coaches will be deciding who makes the team.

“Our evaluation is on ice, off ice and everything,” Viveiros said. “How our kids are working off ice at the gym, their habits at practice, are they cutting corners?”

Goals, assists and skills are nice. They aren't necessarily the frist thing coaches are looking at when figuring out who can fill roles.

“I think the big things right now is their compete level,” Viveiros noted. “If they compete on a daily basis... we can always teach them systems. One thing that is almost virtually impossible is to teach a kid how to compete all the time. The next thing is we watch kids try to absorb our systems. We throw a lot at them right away and we're hoping they can absorb it as quickly as possible.”

The Broncos play their second and last game at the Regina pre-season invitational tomorrrow at 3pm against Saskatoon. They then visit Lethbridge on September 8th and host the Hurricanes at Fairview West Arena on September 10th.