The Moose Jaw AAA Warriors have all but guaranteed themselves a spot in the Mac's AAA Midget Tournament playoffs after putting together a 3-0 record heading into their final round robin game against the St. Albert Nektar Raiders.
The Warriors followed their 4-2 win over the Calgary Royals on Thursday with a 3-2 victory Friday before rolling to a 5-2 win against the Airdrie Bisons in the early game Sunday.
The top eight teams from the five four-team round robin pools advance to the quarter-finals beginning Tuesday.
Warriors 4, Calgary Royals 2
The Warriors found themselves in a back-and-forth battle in their tournament opener, but Connor McGrath would see to it they'd come out on the right side of the scoresheet.
McGrath had goals in each period – including the eventual game-winner with 14:12 to play in the second – while Kirk Mullen had their other marker. Caelan Fitzpatrick had two assists.
The contest was tied 2-2 after the first and the Warriors led 3-2 through two.
Dylan Ernst had 22 saves for Moose Jaw.
Warriors 3, Cariboo 2
Things were even closer in the Warriors second game against one of the top teams in the BC Major Midget AAA league.
Ben Wourms-Rowe scored the game-winning goal with 1:11 to play, less than five minutes after Sam Boldt had tied things up on the power play, to give the Warriors the win over Cariboo.
The Cougars took a 1-0 lead out of the first before Wourms-Rowe got the Tribe on board four minutes into the second. The tie wouldn't survive the period, though, as Cariboo regained the lead with 4:06 left in the frame.
Chase Coward turned aside 24 shots in the Warriors' goal.
Warriors 5, Airdrie Bisons 2
Scoring information was unavailable as of this writing, but the Warriors were heavily favoured heading into the contest and lived up to the advance billing against Airdrie, who carried a 3-17-2 record into the tournament.
Things will almost certainly be tougher in their final round robin match-up, though, as the Warriors will face the top team in the Alberta AAA Hockey League.
St. Albert – currently 2-0 in the tournament after an 8-1 win over the Calgary Royals and 6-2 win over Airdrie – will face the Warriors in a showdown of league leaders: Moose Jaw leads the Sask Midget AAA League at 21-8-1-0, St. Albert has been all but unstoppable at 18-1-3.
Game time is 11:30 a.m. on Monday.
