Learning how to win in the WHL can be a bumpy road.

A huge up and a bigger down for the Swift Current Broncos in the third period tonight.

The  young club came all the way back from down 3-0 to tie a strong Medicine Hat Tigers club before giving up a heartbreaking late goal with 52 seconds left in regulation.

Medicine Hat added an empty net goal and won it 5-3.

"It stung in the third for sure," said Broncos assistant coach Scott Dutertre. "I loved our effort in the third we came back, but just a couple weird bounces... we were just spotty. They have a few guys in their lineup that when it's spotty they can take advantage of it."



The Broncos got off to a strange start as they played a very even first period with the Tigers and found themselves down 3-0.

Rookie Nick McCarry struck for his WHL goal early when a puck hopped off the end boards and right to an uncovered McCarry who snapped it upstairs on Isaac Poulter.

Medicine Hat's second goal came courtesy of defenceman Dylan MacPherson who took advantage of two Broncos defencemen getting caught in the offensive zone and scored on the rebound of his own shot. Brett Kemp then struck for his 25th and a 3-0 Tigers lead.

That score came despite a very even period in terms of puck possession, odd man rushes and scoring chances.

Medicine Hat looked to build on that lead with a big push early in the second period the Broncos were able to hold off. Poulter returned to the net after a somewhat shaky first period and recovered with a very strong game the rest of the way to give his team room for a comeback.

"The compete level on that kid," Dutertre said. "For a young guy it's always a coin flip. Are they going to be able to respond or is it going to snowball. He showed a lot of composure and professionalism when he came back in and battled back in. He made some big saves for us, helped our guys settle down and get the puck going north again."



Owen Blocker got Swift Current on the board after Garrett Sambrook fed him the puck on the right wing side and sped to the net to provide a bit of distraction for Tigers goaltender Jordan Hollett. The hard Blocker shot snuck in despite Hollett getting a piece of it and the Broncos at least were able to cut Medicine Hat's league before the start of the third period.

That's when they started to come on. Ethan O'Rourke closed the gap to one when he finished a really nice passing play from Ian Briscoe across the Medicine Hat zone to Tyler Smithies who fed it behind his back across the crease to O'Rourke. That was O'Rourke's second goal in as many games and the line has come together for four goals in their last four games.

"One of the things we talked about with them is puck management," Dutertre said. "Smithies does a great job of managing the puck. If he doesn't have an option he puts it in a good are where we're going to win a race or a battle. O'Rouke and Briscoe there we talked about with them where they need to put pucks... we've been really working on that and going over video with getting them to solidify what we're doing in our d-zone and making sure we're not coughing up pucks in those areas. I think the combination of those two things has been a major factor in that line's success."

Smithies has three assists and an even plus/minus in his five games with Swift Current so far, O'Rourke has seven points in his last nine games and Briscoe's two assists tonight give him six in his last nine games. That production for Briscoe comes after he had only one assist in his previous 17 games.

Swift Current then tied the game on their lone power play of the night when Connor Horning one-times a puck through an O'Rourke screen for his fourth goal of the season. Horning and Billy Sowa had been moving the puck between them to set the play up before Horning ripped out by Hollett.

The Broncos were also again strong on their penalty kill as they stopped all four Medicine Hat attempts.

"Our power play we did a good job moving the puck around and converted on it," Dutertre said. "Our kill guys were blocking shots like crazy and Poults made the saves when we needed them. It was just a solid effort."

Once Swift Current tied the game they faced a surge from the Tigers who are trying to keep pace in a very tight Central Division race. That increased pace and intensity put the Broncos on their heels late before Trevor Longo scored the winner with a one-timer from the point with 52 seconds left in the game.

"There are these learning outcomes unfortunately for us we keep getting them all the time," Dutertre said. "In this league there's this increased level of urgency when the game is on the line. They pushed a little bit harder then they hard earlier. We needed to adjust and push back a little bit. Our guys they're learning that and being exposes to that. I think lesson learned and they know now how we have to push when the game is on the line like that."

James Hamblin then finished the game off with a late goal in Swift Current's empty net.

Poulter made 39 saves on 43 shots in a losing cause, while Hollett stopped 23 of 26 Swift Current shots. The Broncos have now lost all three games against the Tigers so far this season. They will visit Medicine Hat one more time on March 2nd.

Swift Current drops to 9-33-2-1 with their third straight loss. They had Dean Brockman back behind the bench after he missed Friday's game scouting bantam players in Edmonton. Assistant Brandin Cote missed tonight's game working with Team Alberta as they prepare for the Canada Winter Games.

The Broncos are now off until Friday when they start a home-and-home against Saskatoon. A break will be good for a team that has played nine times in the first 19 days of the month.

"We're going to fine tune a little bit," Dutertre said. "We'll work on some skill development with the guys and get everyone recovered again. We have some guys who are sick. A couple of our other guys who were out should be back in. I'm looking forward to the week it gives us a little bit of time to re-generate and be ready to go."

The Broncos were still missing Eric Houk and Ben King to injury. Austin Herron was a healthy scratch and Roope Pynnonen got back in the lineup with Alex Thacker returning to Midget AAA. Christian Riemer was moved up front again playing win on the fourth line after playing Friday's game back on defence.

The home-and-home between the Tigers and Broncos came only a couple days after the two cities announced they would be the joint hosts for the next World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.