Winterhawks Tie Game Late, Give up Winning Goal in Final Seconds

The Portland Winterhawks made a big third period comeback, but fell after a late goal by the Swift Current Broncos gave the home team a 5-4 win Wednesday.

After a scoreless first period, the Broncos opened the scoring 23 seconds into the second period on a goal from Max Lajoie. Their lead was short-lived however, as just 1:29 later Miles Koules deflected a Paul Bittner point shot past Broncos netminder Landon Bow to tie the game at 1-1.

Swift Current regained the lead midway through the frame when Lajoie scored his second of the game to give the Broncos a 2-1 advantage. Again though the Hawks responded at the 14:27 mark when defenseman Brendan De Jong found Chase De Leo in front of the net, and De Leo spun and put a backhand into the net to tie the game at 2-2, which remained the scoring going into the third.

The Broncos took a 4-2 lead with a pair of goals from Dakota Odgers and Zac Mackay early in the third.

Late in the period on a 4-on-4, Bittner wired a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle past Bow to bring the Hawks within one, 4-3 at the 17:50 mark. Then with under a minute to go and goaltender Bolton Pouliot on the bench for an extra attacker, Bittner struck again as he collected the puck off a faceoff and scored to tie the game at 4-4.

But with 12.6 seconds to go, Swift Current’s Colby Cave scored to give the home team a 5-4 win.

The road trip continues Friday when the Hawks (3-9-0-2) are in Prince Albert to take on the Raiders.