Stepan Kuryachenkov scored a hat trick, including the overtime winner, to lead the Swift Current Broncos to a 4-3 win over the visiting Saskatoon Blades on Saturday.
The import forward ended the game with a power play goal with 1:13 remaining in the extra period, his 11th goal of the season.
The Broncos were opportunistic in the opening stanza with three goals on 11 shots. Kuryachenkov scored midway through the period when he found a puck in the slot, turned and fired home his ninth goal of the season. Overager Anthony Wilson added to the lead when he found the top corner for his ninth goal of the season. Kuryachenkov scored 18 seconds later when he kept the puck on a two-on-one and found the same top corner. That goal chased starter Evan Gardner with five saves on eight shots in 16:27 of work.
The Blades scored the only goal of the second period when Zach Olsen scored after a lengthy scramble on the power play.
They cut into the lead 1:59 into the third period with a Kaiden Williams goal and then forced overtime when Cooper Williams tied the game with only 39 seconds remaining in regulation.
The Broncos improved 10-30–3-0, while Saskatoon fell to 22-16-3-1.
Archer Cooke made 29 saves to improve to 2-3-2-0. Ryley Budd stopped 18 of 19 shots to fall to 2-1-1-0.
