The Swift Current Broncos clinched a playoff spot with a 5-2 win over the host Prince Albert Raiders on Wednesday.
The Broncos got a pair of goals from Justin Dowling and singles from Michael Stickland, Stepan Novotny, and Cody Eakin as they became the 16th and final team to claim a spot in the Western Hockey League playoffs while also eliminating the Raiders from playoff contention.
Stickland, 20, scored his first shorthanded goal of the season, the third of his career, at the 15:08 mark of the first period to give the Broncos the lead with his 21st goal of the season.
Dowling became the Broncos' second 30 goal scorer when he tallied on the powerplay 2:24 later.
Novotny added his 25th goal, an unasssisted marker, 8:17 into the third period after a scoreless middle stanza.
Nathan Deck and Igor Revenko replied for the Raiders in the third period to cut the lead to 3-2.
Eakin scored with 2:01 remaining into an empty net to end the Raiders' comeback bid with his 46th of the campaign.
Dowling added another empty netter with 36 seconds remaining to conclude the scoring.
Broncos goaltender Morgan Clark made 38 saves to improve to 23-14-1-2.
Garrett Zemlak made 32 saves on 35 shots to drop to 25-25-3-1 for the Raiders.
The win improved the Broncos to 35-30-1-4 on the season with two games remaining in the regular season as they now have points in nine of their past 11 road games. The Raiders playoff hopes came to an end as their record dropped to 31-34-3-2.
The Broncos now sit only one point back of the seventh-place Moose Jaw Warriors after the Warriors lost 8-2 to Brandon on Wednesday.
The Broncos will host the Warriors on Saturday, followed by the season finale in Moose Jaw on Sunday as the two teams duke it out for the seventh playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Broncos are 5-1 against the Warriors this season, including wins in their past three meetings, and have won 11 of 12 games over the past two seasons.
Bronco Bits: Novotny has scored nine of his 11 goals as a Bronco on the road since being acquired from the Kelowna Rockets in November. Stickland and Eakin both set up each other's goals for two-point outings. Jordan Peddle and Jordan Evans also collected assists. Clark has wins in four of his past five games as the Broncos have collected nine of 10 points in those contests.
