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Black against Moose Jaw (photo by Marc Smith)

All good things come to an end and they did for the Swift Current Broncos on Saturday. Moose Jaw beat the Broncos 5-2 and snapped Swift Current's seven game winning streak.

"The timing of the season we needed a good push winning seven games in a row and beating a lot of good hockey teams," said Broncos Assistant Coach Jamie Heward. "We just ran into a team tonight that outworked us and those things are going to happen. You're not going to continue to win all the time."

Despite that, the coaching staff wasn't satisfied with their approach in the game.

"The way that we lost was a little disappointing," Heward added. "We played with long sticks and we got outworked by a team that maybe doesn't nearly have the talent that we do. Give them credit they played real hard. They've been in a big slump so it's a little disappointing we came out with that effort, but we regroup and we've got a lot of hockey to go."

The Broncos got off to a great start scoring 1:26 into the game as Ryon Moser converted a nice feed from Adam Lowry for his 14th of the year. Moser opened the scoring in both games over the weekend. Swift Current outshot Moose Jaw 6-0 in the opening minutes and seemed in firm control until they started taking penalties.

"Penalty trouble lately has kind of crept into our game," Heward noted. "We're taking some lazy penalties, we're taking some reaching penalties, we're taking some penalties where we're just not working hard enough to recover pucks... talent doesn't always necessarily win you games if you get outworked."

Moose Jaw converted on a power play late in the first period as rookie Brayden Point tied the game with his 11th of the year. The Warriors then took a lead in the second period when Bryson Gore's shot deflected off of Daniel Dale's skate and beat Landon Bow. Bow was the surprise starter in goal for Swift Current after Eetu Laurikainen had been listed as the starting netminder for the Broncos. Laurikainen was feeling under the weather and the change was made at the last moment.

The Broncos came out in the third and started to generate more scoring opportunities, but were unable to solve Warriors goalie Justin Paulic before Moose Jaw extended their lead. Tanner Eberle was stopped on a breakaway and awarded a controversial penalty shot. The gritty forward converted on the play and gave Moose Jaw needed insurance.

Only 1:35 later, the Broncos got back to within a goal as Scarlett started a rush from behind his own net, passed off to Lowry and put the return feed behind Paulic for his 7th of the year. That's as close as the Broncos would get as they fired 15 shots on goal in the third and couldn't find another tally. Justin Kirsch and Sam Fioretti added late goals for the Warriors.

The game disintegrated as the crowd became frustrated with officiating and some started to litter the ice with garbage. Graham Black was assessed a major penalty for elbowing and a game misconduct. Scarlett was kicked out of the game moments later for arguing the call. While on a 5 on 3 power play late, Warriors rookie Colton McCarthy drew the ire of the Broncos by taking a couple of late pokes at a puck under Bow and fights broke out between everybody on the ice. Bow challenged Paulic and was rebuffed.

The loss dropped Swift Current to 6th in the Eastern Conference with a tough schedule coming up. They host 3rd place Calgary on Wednesday before visiting 1rst place Edmonton on Friday.

We'll have more Broncos talk on our weekly sports talk show, Home Hardware's Overtime from 6 to 7pm Monday night on The Eagle 94.1 FM.

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