The Swift Current Broncos could not hold onto a 3-1 third period lead while falling to the visiting Calgary Hitmen 4-3 in a shootout on Wednesday night.
Calgary’s Josh Prokop scored the lone shootout goal to complete the comeback for the Hitmen who outshot the Broncos by a 53-22 margin.
Cael Zimmerman and Carson Focht scored 3:59 apart in the final period as Calgary forced overtime with their late comeback efforts. Focht also opened the scoring just 2:15 into the first period during his two goal performance.
New Swift Current addition D-Jay Jerome scored his first goal as a Bronco 6:06 into his first home game to tie the game 1-1. Swift Current built a 2-1 first period advantage when Jaxan Kaluski scored on the power play. Kaluski added a second power play goal in the middle stanza as Swift Current enjoyed a 3-1 lead after two periods.
Swift Current ended up two for six with the man advantage, while Calgary was held scoreless in seven power play chances.
Bronco netminder Isaac Poulter turned aside 50 of 53 shots in the shootout loss and now boasts an 8-18-1-2 record. Calgary goaltender Jack McNaughton improved to 14-4-1-1 on the season after stopping 19 of 22 shots.
Calgary improves to 22-13-4-1 to sit fourth in the Central Division standings, while Swift Current picked up one point and remains last in the WHL with a 9-27-1-3 mark.
