Gary Haden's four goal outburst was all the Saskatoon Blades needed to earn a fifth straight win against the Swift Current Broncos this season.

Haden opened the scoring in the first period and then struck for a second period natural hat trick to lead the Blades back from a 2-1 deficit. Saskatoon would add another goal on the way to a 5-2 win.

"Our effort wasn't very good," said Broncos Head Coach/Director of Hockey Operations Dean Brockman. "We didn't play with our brains or our feet. I don't know why. We had a week to prepare. Our guys just weren't very good."



Brockman wasn't impressed by his team's fire after five days off.

"We showed a lack of passion tonight for the game," he said. "Just our awareness and guys got a little bit selfish with some of their actions. It can happen... but that's just totally not acceptable."

The Blades controlled the puck early and took a 1-0 lead on a Haden power play goal. That's when the Broncos started to push back and put some pressure on Saskatoon late in the first period.



Ethan O'Rourke tipped in a Connor Horning shot extending his goal scoring streak to three games. Tanner Nagel then took advantage of a turnover and snapped home an Ethan Regnier feed with 4.3 seconds left in the period.

That lead didn't last long before Haden put on a second period show. That's something the Broncos will have to be ready for in the re-match on Saturday night in Saskatoon.

"For us we need to come out with more of a physical presence," O'Rourke said. "We didn't set enough of a tone early to really establish ourselves in the game and they kind of took that ran ran with it being the skilled team that they are."



Isaac Poulter stopped 40 of the 45 Blades shots in a losing cause for the Broncos, while Nolan Maier made 20 saves for the Blades. Saskatoon sits at 29-13-6-0 and second spot in the WHL East Division. The Broncos fall to 9-34-2-1.

Swift Current was still without injured forward Ben King and were missing Carter Chorney to a case of the flu. Eric Houk made his return from a brief injury.

You can listen to Saturday's game from Saskatoon live on The Eagle 94.1 FM with Robertson Family Group Broncos Hockey at 6:30pm on The Eagle 94.1 FM.