Three recent blown leads led to a team meeting for the Swift Current Broncos today.

Whatever the group said seemed to stick as they played a very strong and complete game on the way to a 3-1 win over Brandon.

"I think it's just a matter of us cracking down and learning from our mistakes," said Broncos forward Matteo Gennaro. "As an organization we had a meeting and figured out that enough is enough. We've had leads in games and given them up. Those are just times where you have to have that killer instinct. That's what we showed tonight."



The coaching staff heard from their players in the morning and were pleased with the direction they took that conversation.

"We had a long talk this morning about the way that we want to play and the things that we want to do," said Broncos Associate Coach Ryan Smith. "We let everybody have a word and everybody said the right things. They followed up with actions. That was important to us as a staff. We watned to see how they would put a plan into place and I thought they did that."

Brandon opened the scoring when a puck hopped away from Josh Anderson at the offensive point and the Wheat Kings converted a 2 on 1 for Linden McCorrister's 16th of the season.

After a surge from the Wheat Kings, the Broncos started to assert themselves with a consistent push the rest of the period. Gennaro scored his 40th of the season for the second time in his WHL career to tie the game and Swift Current came very close to taking the lead several times before the end of the first period.

"It's an accomplishment for me," Gennaro said of the 40-goal mark. "But we have a great team. It's fun playing hockey when you have team success and guys around you are helping you out."

Swift Current went on the attack for much of the second as the re-united top line of Glenn Gawdin, Tyler Steenbergen and Aleksi Heponiemi put the most pressure on the Wheat Kings. The broke through when Heponiemi converted a Gawdin pass for his 27th of the season and a 2-1 Broncos lead.

After giving up a three-goal lead in a shootout loss to Prince Albert on Friday, the Broncos buckled down in the third period tonight and really limited Brandon's opportunities. Newly signed AHL prospect for San Jose, Evan Weinger had the best chance of the third period for the Wheat Kings as he drove across the front of the Swift Current net from his off wing only to be denied by Stuart Skinner's left pad.

"We were better structurally," Smith said. "We didn't take any chances offensively. We put it 200 feet from our net most of the time. Blocked some shuts and we played the right way down the stretch. That's what we need to do.



Beck Malenstyn put the game out of reach with a late empty net goal for his 14th of the season.

Skinner only had to make 18 saves in securing the victory for Swift Current. Logan Thompson made 33 saves and was strong in the Brandon net.

Gawdin had two assists in the game and extended his points streak to 25 games. He leads the WHL with 122 points and is 9 points up of both Brayden Burke and Jayden Halbgewachs of the Moose Jaw Warriors. He's 11 points ahead of Heponiemi as well.

Neither team had a power play in a disciplined but still physical game.

"You don't see many games where neither team takes a penalty," Smith noted. "It was a physical game. This is a team we might match-up in the playoffs with. I think both teams played with an edge, but played fairly. That's a good hockey game. One of the better games of the season."

The Broncos were without Kaden Elder who was sick tonight.

Swift Current moves to 46-14-4-2 on the season and they still have a good shot to hit the 50-win mark.

Moose Jaw beat Saskatoon 5-1 so the Warriors remained a point ahead of Swift Current for top spot in the WHL with a game in hand. The Broncos have six games left including a visit to Moose Jaw next Saturday.

Brandon is still sitting comfortably in a playoff spot four points ahead of Prince Albert and eight points ahead of Saskatoon.

Next action for the Broncos is a home game against three former teammates from Calgary on Wednesday. It is the return of Conner Chaulk, Riley Stotts and Dom Schmiemann to the Innovation Credit Union iPlex for the first time after the big trade between the two teams a few months ago.

The Broncos wore Don Cherry style jerseys in tonight's game and they were sold off to raise money for the Kidney Foundation of Canada.