The Broncos celebrate an OT win (photo from scbroncos.com)

With his parents visiting Swift Current from Russia there was never a better time for Artyom Minulin to play hero.

The rookie defenceman scored the overtime winner as his Broncos beat the Prince Albert Raiders 3-2 tonight.

It was Swift Current's first overtime win of the season.

"I don't think we changed a whole lot," said Broncos forward Glenn Gawdin who set the winner up. "We've talked about how to play 3 on 3. Take your chances when you're there and you've got to be responsible defensively. There's lots of 2 on 1s back and forth and that's how we scored."

Gawdin drove by the Raiders in the neutral zone to create a 2 on 1 that resulted in a rebound and the Minulin goal.

"We've had a lot of good efforts in the last little while," said Broncos assistant coach Jamie Heward. "Tonight was one of those situations where we worked hard right from the start of the game and I'm happy for the guys we finally got an overtime win. It was a big victory for morale."

"You can only work so hard for so long and if you don't get results it's like why are we doing this?"

Minulin and Max Lajoie moved onto a pairing together midway through the game and logged massive minutes in the win including a big kill on a two minute 5 on 3 and double shifting in the third period. The Broncos essentially cut down to four defencemen after Mark Taraschuk was ejected midway through the second period.

"That just comes down to playing as simple as you possibly can," Heward says. "Sometimes it's good to have a lot of ice time where you are not able to do more. Just be as simple as you possibly can because there really wasn't time for long rushes."

"That's four young defenceman (Lajoie, Minulin, Colby Sissons and Kade Jensen) playing big minutes. It's not like you're talking about a bunch of 19-year-olds that's 17 and 18-year-olds... I thought they came out and played fantastic."

The Broncos again had an impressive start with no reward. They outshot the Raiders 17-8 in the first period and still found themselves down 1-0 on a Reid Gardiner goal.

Their fourth line created some energy in the second period after the teams exchanged hits and a Brandan Arnold kneeing penalty caused a mini-brawl in the Prince Albert zone. Arthur Miller and Taraschuk were kicked out for their part in the fight that caused a 5 on 3 Raiders power play.

"For that line that's what they have to do every game," Gawdin said. "Not necessarily fight but get some energy, get some hits... I think they did that. It was a penalty but they had the right mindset. From there we picked up the pace."

The 5 on 3 kill was a huge moment in the game as it could have put the already leading Raiders in the driver's seat.

"It could have been a game changer," Heward said. "If they get a goal there we're on our heels and probably in a situation where we are thinking here we go again, but our guys battled hard. Bow made a couple of big saves and we turned it around and ended up scoring a goal."

Cavin Leth responded to the penalty kill with a great shot for his 6th goal of the season and the first Broncos goal in eight periods. They then added a Lajoie power play goal to lead 2-1 after 2.

"I think that power play goal really set the stage for guys to really appreciate what was happening in the game for us," Heward said. "It just was one of those breaks where we really, really needed it."

Jesse Lees tied the score for the Raiders and both goaltenders held on the rest of the way to force overtime.

Rylan Parenteau was terrific for the Raiders with 37 saves in a losing cause. Landon Bow made several big saves in his 29 including a huge stop in overtime to keep his team in it.

The Broncos visit the Saskatoon Blades on Wednesday. They then visit Regina on Friday and host Kootenay on Sunday afternoon. You can hear every game live on The Eagle 94.1 FM.