The Moose Jaw AAA Warriors haven’t had a lot of luck around the net through the first two games of their Saskatchewan Male AAA Hockey League series with the Regina Pat Canadians.
Part of it is the Pat C’s defence, part of it is the play of goaltender Kelton Pyne.
But Warriors head coach Trevor Weisgerber remains confident his troops can find a way to get things done after dropping a 5-2 decision in Game 2 on Monday night at Mosaic Place.
The Warriors lost Game 1 3-0 on Friday night, meaning they now trail the best-of-five series two games to none.
“It’s obviously a tough one to swallow,” Weisgerber said. “I have to give them credit, they do a great job blocking shots and it’s tough to get to their goaltender. Then when we did get there, he made some pretty big saves and was a key part of the game… We really need to bear down and when we have opportunities to score we have to make the best of them.”
The Warriors were hoping for a better start in the first period, but they didn’t get it, as Regina’s Ryan Zaremba and McLaren Paulsen scored in the final four minutes to give Regina a 2-0 lead.
Pyne saw his shutout streak nearly reach 100 minutes before Moose Jaw was able to break through. Connor Miller did the honours, scoring with 17 seconds remaining in the second to give the hosts life heading into the final period.
There, Regina limited the Warriors to only a handful of opportunities while keeping much of the play to the outside thanks to a ton of the aforementioned blocked shots. Still, Moose Jaw was a shot away from tying things up until Nolan Stevenson added an insurance marker with 4:22 remaining.
WHL Warriors prospect Ben Riche scored an empty netter with 2:09 remaining to close out scoring.
Ethan Fechter finished with a 21-save night in goal, while Pyne would cap the contest with 16 saves.
Increasing that number and putting extra pressure on Regina will be a key for Game 3 on Thursday night in Regina.
“We have to get something early and play with a lead here,” Weisgerber said. “We’ve been chasing both games now, so we need to get things earlier and get one by him early and play with the lead.”
The good thing is the Warriors have done so before against Regina in their regular-season wins -- and that has their coach confident they can do it again.
“I have all the faith in the world in this group, we just have to do a better job of bearing down on our opportunities, get one or two early and see how things go from there,” Weisgerber said.
With a Warriors win in Regina Thursday, the series returns to Moose Jaw on Sunday night, with puck drop at 7 p.m. at Mosaic Place.
