Broncos Tigers Mackay Penner
Zac Mackay and Blake Penner (photo by Darwin Knelsen for scbroncos.com)

Dryden Hunt scored a natural hat trick in the second period as the Medicine Hat Tigers beat the Swift Current Broncos 6-3 on Monday afternoon.

The Broncos gave up four goals on thirteen shots in the second period as the Tigers appeared to put the game out of reach. Swift Current managed a late surge to close the gap to 5-3, but Cole Sanford put the game away with an empty net goal.

Swift Current had a good start to the game outshooting the Tigers 9-4 in the early going and controlling the pace o the game. Medicine Hat managed a goal late in the first period on a play where the Broncos felt the linesman shouldn't have allowed the puck to drop when captain Colby Cave's stick wasn't on the ice yet.

“He shouldn't of dropped the puck,” said Broncos Coach/GM Mark Lamb. “He came over and apologized it's just a bad play on his part. You never know what part of the game is going to win or lose you the game it's all about momentum... Cave didn't even have his stick down... he still had time to blow the whistle.”

Down 1-0 entering the second period the Broncos couldn't get their power play going and Medicine Hat seemed to strike every time they had a successful penalty kill.

“You have to overcome all that,” Lamb said. “When bad things happen you have to push a little harder. That was the story of the game. When bad things happen... the pride has to kick in and it didn't kick in until late.”

Swift Current's coach felt the way the game started was a missed opportunity for his club.

“I thought they were ready to be had,” Lamb said. “We didn't have that extra push or that extra leadership to take it to the next level. We were just kind of in the game. It could have went either way and I thought their leadership and their push was better than ours.”

The Broncos seemed to get away from their game after some early chances that didn't go in.

“It's happened to us a few times and we have to learn from that,” Lamb said. “It's just a push. We had to give a little bit more but within the team structure. You have to get harder in what you do and we got softer.”

The push the Broncos got in the third period came from their bottom six forwards as Linden Penner scored on the power play to cut the lead to 5-1 and Cavin Leth put home an Ayrton Nikkel rebound to make it 5-2. With new life Swift Current went back to the power play and Jordan Thomson's goal closed the gap to only two goals with two minutes left to play.

Lamb was again impressed with the Leth, Zac Mackay and Tanner LeSann line as they finished +1 despite matching up with Medicine Hat's top line all night.

“They've been doing a really good job,” he noted. “There's the push from underneath. We need guys like Merkley, Rigby, DeBrusk, Gawdin and Coda Gordon to take charge of that. Your offensive guys in these types of games they have to be the difference.”

Landon Bow made 21 saves through two periods before getting pulled for Travis Child who stopped all 15 shots he saw in the third period.

Swift Current played the game with five defencemen as Griffin Foulk joined Dillon Heatherington and Jordan Harris on the injured list after Saturday's game. Lamb doesn't yet know if either Foulk or Heatherington will be available for the weekend and is considering calling someone up this week.

The Tigers have now won all three games between the two clubs this season.

Swift Current still won two out of three games on the weekend and have won six of their past nine games. They're eight points behind Regina for second place in the WHL East Division and nine points ahead of Moose Jaw/Prince Albert for the third and final guaranteed payoff spot in the division.

Next action for the Broncos is at home on Friday against Red Deer.