AAA Warriors fall to Regina in first- place showdown

The Moose Jaw Warriors came out of their Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League first place showdown with the Regina Pat Canadians thinking they could have had a better fate.

A couple of third period miscues turned out to be the difference, as the Pat Canadians took a 5-3 victory Sunday afternoon at Mosaic Place.

As a result, Regina took over top spot in the 12-team league, improving to 27-7-5-0 and moving two points ahead of 28-9-1-0 Moose Jaw, with the Warriors holding a game in hand.

“It was a good hockey game, we’re two evenly matched teams and that was a good battle,” said Warriors assistant coach Carter Smith. “We’ve been off for a couple of weeks, but I thought the boys played really well for playing that calibre after [the time off]. We gave ourselves a shot to win and it was just a couple of mental errors in the third that cost us the game.”

Regina took a 1-0 lead out of the first period off a goal by Johnny Carmichael, but it would be the Warriors who took over the game in the second period.

Kirk Mullen tied the contest with a power play goal with 6:23 gone and Max Wanner put the Warriors ahead 2-1 with another man advantage marker two minutes later. The edge wouldn’t last the period, though, as Logan Hammet scored a power play goal to send things into the third tied 2-2.

The Warriors regained the lead 8:22 into the final frame, as Lucius Schmidt capped a stretch of hockey played almost solely in the Regina zone with quick shot from the top of the circles that eluded Pat Canadians netminder Drayden Ramage.

That would be the last bit of good news for the home side.

Carter Derenisky tied the game for Regina at 6:29 as he found a loose puck in traffic front of the Warriors net and beat goaltender Dustin Ernst with a knuckleball of a shot in close.

The Pat Canadians made the most of a power play again three minutes later, as Noah Kuntz’s point shot found its way through bodies and into the Warriors net.

Zach Cain would add an empty net goal with 12 seconds left.

Ernst would finish with 25 saves for the Warriors, Ramage stopped 35 for Regina.

The key for the Warriors going forward will be how they bounce back from what amounts to their toughest loss of the season – and their first in league play since Dec. 19, a span of eight games.

“This group, they’re resilient and they’ve proven to us time and time again that they work,” Smith said. “The goals we set at the beginning of the season, I have no doubt the kids are going to reach them and it’s just going to take hard work and a little adversity might help these boys.”

And that’s the thing: when you’ve been winning as much as the Warriors have, sometimes it takes a loss to give the coaching staff a teachable moment.

“It definitely does,” Smith said. “It keeps you level headed, and you want adversity to see how your team will respond. Our schedule hasn’t been the toughest the last couple of weeks, so playing these games, you’re getting ready for playoffs and seeing where they can bring their game to is big.

“This was a perfect test, just seeing where they can get to in a short period of time is great. I think they battled hard tonight and we’ll be ready.”

The Warriors are back in action Saturday, Feb, 8 with they travel to Prince Albert to face the Mintos.