After goals couldn't materialize on a flurry of chances this season for Swift Current Broncos centreman Ethan O'Rourke, the towering forward finally broke the 28-game goose egg over the weekend.

On the road in Calgary on Friday, O'Rourke put one home to open scoring in the game - though the Broncos would end up falling 3-2 on a late Hitmen goal.

"I think it's just been a matter of improving every day, I felt a lot better as of late. Obviously I would have liked that first goal to come a lot sooner but, now that it's out of the way, hopefully a lot more can start coming," said O'Rourke on Saturday before the Broncos took on the Red Deer Rebels.

"It happens to absolutely everybody. If you get on that little bit of a schneid, everything starts to grip up on the stick a little bit on you," he admitted. "You could see it even in that game in Lethbridge - I got myself on the Top 10 Plays of the Week, but on the wrong end getting stoned. Definitely makes things a little easier once you get a bit of a liberating feeling."

The goal, according to the 6-foot-5, 220-pound O'Rourke, was a direct result of implementing a heavily practiced area of his game as of late.

"I think the biggest thing, I know our coaches will attest to it, is just taking pucks right to the hole - bringing it right to the net - and I think that created some space for me yesterday in a couple of circumstances. I took that puck there and made a big difference. Eventually I had that space where I got to take a shot, and it went in for me," he said.

And attest, they did, as assistant coach Brandin Cote explained.

"It's really important - with Ethan, it's just a matter of we've been encouraging him, and pushing him to take the puck to the net, because he's got such a big frame, and he's got the reach," Cote shared. "He's got some skill, and he can skate. Even the goal he scored, it wasn't a great goal, but he took the puck to the net and he shot it."

With Max Patterson gone to Everett via trade earlier this month, the minutes have been there for the 1999-born O'Rourke as of late, which have provided a chance at an understandably quicker growth.

"I think definitely it's something that's just gotten a little bit easier. Having that little boost of minutes has helped. Mistakes have to happen for things to get better. I think with that higher amount of minutes, I can make a few extra ones, and then get to go right back out and make better on those mistakes after they happen," he said.

O'Rourke and the Broncos are back home at the Innovation Credit Union iPlex on Wednesday for a 7 p.m. game with the Regina Pats.