The Swift Current Broncos got a pair of goals from captain Glenn Gawdin as they defeated the visiting Regina Pats Saturday.
In a rare Saturday afternoon game, Gawdin notched the game winner, his 39th of the season, on an innocent looking rush midway through the third period with the game tied 1-1.
“It was just kind of a scramble in the neutral zone and it popped out to Steener [Tyler Steenbergen], who played it to Hepo [Aleksi Heponiemi]. I was wide and he played it out to me. A couple times I felt like I made the extra pass so I just tried to get it on net and it went in. Nothing can go wrong shooting the puck,” said Gawdin.
The Broncos took three early penalties and paid for it when Libor Hajek scored on a point shot on the power play 7:35 into regulation.
The Broncos came on in the second period with 18 shots on goal and Gawdin tied the game when he tipped home his 38th goal of the season midway through the middle stanza.
Artyom Minulin added an empty net goal to close the scoring.
Stuart Skinner improved to 19-17-2-0 with 22 saves. Ryan Kubic kept the Pats in the game with 42 saves to fall to 12-13-2-0.
The Broncos improved to 34-12-3-1, while Regina dropped to 25-21-5-0.
The game was played in front of another sold out crowd of 2,879 at the Innovation Credit Union iplex.
“I was joking around in the room that it felt just like last year in playoffs, especially with this rivalry. To sell out a game at the end of January is pretty surreal,” said Gawdin, who is in his fifth and final season with the Broncos, only six games away from his 300th regular season game.
The two teams will rematch Sunday in Regina.
“I think it’s the exact same things as we did tonight. Lock it down defensively and try and stay out of the box. Obviously they have a good power play, that’s how they got their goal. For us it’s just about playing solid, a full 60, but really lock it down on our D zone,” said Gawdin.
