Broncos fall 2-1 to Wheat Kings

Published on February 22, 2007

Published on July 9, 2009

Steven Mah

Broncos fail to hold early lead in 2-1 loss

The Swift Current Broncos dropped their fourth consecutive game Friday night when they fell 2-1 to the Brandon Wheat Kings in front of 3,712 fans at the Keystone Centre. After winning the first three games in the season series, the Broncos have now lost the past four match-ups between the two teams.

The Broncos earned a quick lead off the stick of 20-year-old forward Jeremy Schenderling when he scored his 18th goal of the season only 43 seconds into the contest.

Swift Current maintained the one-goal advantage until Andrew Clark beat Kyle Moir for his 23rd goal of the season to send the teams into the first intermission tied 1-1.

The next thirty-minutes were played to a stand still until Brandon's Juraj Simek scored the eventual game winning goal on the powerplay with 5:23 remaining in the game.

The Broncos pulled Moir in favor of the extra attacker with 1:26 remaining but were unable to beat Joe Caligiuri in the game's closing moments.

Kyle Moir stopped 34 of 36 Wheat Kings shots in the loss. Moir's record drops to 15-25-0-1 on the season.

Caligiuri stopped 23 of 24 shots to earn his 10th win of the season against only five losses.

The Broncos went zero for five on the powerplay while the Wheat Kings scored once in five opportunities.

The Broncos played without 16-year-old forwards Geordie Wudrick and Phil Gervais who are in Whitehorse, Yukon to compete in the Canada Winter Games. 17-year-old center Matt Tassone is also out of the lineup indefinitely with a knee injury. 15-year-old forward Cody Eakin dressed for the Broncos in their absence, the game was Eakin's third WHL appearance of the season.

The Broncos record is currently 26-33-1-2, but they remain in third place in the WHL's East Division after loses by Moose Jaw and Prince Albert on Friday night.

Tuesday night the Broncos will host Prince Albert for their second last match-up of the season, the Broncos have beaten the Raiders in each of their six head to head meetings this season.