Joel Hofer was the story as the Swift Current Broncos beat the Calgary Hitmen 2-1 in the shootout tonight.

Hofer made 41 saves and a few more in the shootout as the Broncos held off a lot of Calgary pressure to earn their second straight win this weekend.

“It felt great,” Hofer said. “The guys battled hard for me. They never gave up on me and made it easy. It all started from the drop of the puck and I was just focused in today.”

The game was only Hofer's third start and fourth appearance in the WHL. He looked calm and composed all night as the Broncos were outshot in all three regulation periods.

Going to a shootout was a new experience for the 17-year-old Winnipeg native.

“Obviously you're a little nervous,” Hofer said. “But you just got to stay calm and composed and I did my best.”

Hofer stopped all three Calgary shooters, while Tyler Steenbergen scored the winner for Swift Current.

The Broncos all rushed to celebrate with their rookie goaltender after he denied NHL first round draft pick Jake Bean on the final shot of the game.

“It was awesome,” Hofer said. “The guys congratulated me and it's just great to be a Bronco.”

Sahvan Khaira scored the lone goal for the Broncos in regulation midway through the second period on a nice feed by Aleksi Heponiemi.

It took until 13:43 of the third period for Jake Kryski to tie the game on a very nice deflection during a Calgary power play. The Hitmen went 1 for 5 on the night with the man advantage, while Swift Current was held to 0 for 2.

The last six minutes of regulation and the five minutes of overtime had a great pace to them as both teams had opportunities and the Broncos really started to push. Heponiemi missed the best two chances in overtime on a 2 on 1 and a clean breakaway as the Broncos outshot the Hitmen 4-1 in extra time.

Swift Current moves to 15-4-1-0 on the season and remain five points back of Moose Jaw for top spot in the Eastern Conference with three games in hand.

The Broncos go right back to work in Brandon on Sunday afternoon. You can listen live to Robertson Family Group Broncos Hockey on The Eagle 94.1 FM at 3:30pm.