WHL Regular Season Game, Dec. 10, 2025. Swift Current Broncos vs Kelowna Rockets at the InnovationPLex in Swift Current, Saskatchewan, Canada (Photo by Ed Fonger Photography)

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The Kelowna Rockets kicked off their six-game Eastern Division road trip Wednesday night with a 6-4 win over the Swift Current Broncos, a game that looked like a runaway early but tightened up late.

It was the Rockets’ 14th victory of the year and their 10th on the road, pushing them into third place in the BC Division and just one point behind the second-place Penticton Vees.

Shane Smith led the Rockets with two goals and two assists in one of his best games of the season. Levi Benson chipped in with a goal and two helpers, and Rowan Guest added three assists.

Kelowna scored just 29 seconds into the game and looked sharp, quick, and fully invested right from puck drop.

Assistant coach Brandon McMillan said coming out of the gates hard was exactly the way they wanted to begin this long road swing.

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“We had a really good start,” McMillan told RocketFAN. “Obviously, scoring in the first shift and a lot of momentum there in the first period. Thought we really controlled the game throughout the first 40 minutes. It was really good hockey from our club.”

By the time the Rockets built up a 5-1 lead, it felt like they were on their way to an easy finish. The Broncos looked flat and out of answers, a team riding what is now a nine-game losing streak. But the third period didn’t follow the script. A couple of tips and deflections gave Swift Current some life, and the Rockets found themselves dealing with a game that suddenly got away from them.

“I don’t think we played particularly bad,” McMillan explained about the Broncos scoring three straight goals including two in a span of 1:07. “They had some breaks. They had a couple of tips. We’d like to see a little bit more composure from our group. After they score one we kind of started to grip our sticks a bit more. We have to be the confident group that knows, oh, that’s all they’re getting. That’s all they’re getting tonight. Hopefully we can learn from that and be better moving forward.”

Kelowna had a chance to calm everything down when the Broncos scored those three goals when they were awarded a five-on-three power play, but could not score.

“That’s what we said in the [dressing] room,” McMillan said. “If our power play unit can put that game away right there, it takes a lot of stress out of the last 15 minutes of the game. That’s something we can work on. We had a few new faces on that group tonight, so that’s up to us as coaches to make sure we rectify that and get everyone on the same page. Hopefully we can do that if we get another one on this trip.”

The emotion level throughout the night had been surprisingly low, but with four minutes left, things finally boiled over. What looked like a penalty kill coming Kelowna’s way suddenly flipped when Swift Current lost its cool, resulting in the road team coming away with a power play in an effort to end the game with the extra man.

“We obviously looked like we were going to get a penalty there and be on the penalty kill, and they decided to take some liberties,” McMillan said. “Good for our guys for sticking up for each other. That was an important moment in the game and we ended up getting on the power play and being able to seal the game.”

It wasn’t a perfect third period, but the Rockets finished the job and earned the two points. On a long road trip like this one, starting with a win matters.

“A win’s a win,” McMillan said. “Two points is two points. Obviously every game’s not going to be perfect. We would have liked to have a better third period, but at the end of the day, they only had seven shots in the third period. They scored on some opportunities they had on a few of our breaks.

“We can learn from our mistakes and move forward and take that motivation into Friday night in Brandon.”