You won’t find more of a ‘bit of the good, bit of the bad’ kind of showing than what the Moose Jaw Warriors went through this past weekend in Sask Male AAA Hockey League action.
Facing the league-leading Saskatoon Blazers for a two-game set at Mosaic Place, the Warriors picked up a 5-3 win in the opener on Saturday before falling 7-2 in the rematch Sunday.
The split sees the Warriors holding a 19-11-0-1 record, good enough for fifth place in the 12-team league, three points back of the Regina Pat Canadians and four up on the Saskatoon Contacts.
The Blazers did almost all their damage Sunday in the first 10 minutes of the game, as Josh Knittig had a pair of goals to go along with single markers from Tyson Yaremko and Trae Wilke for a 4-0 lead by the 9:27 mark.
“We just weren’t ready to play, and that’s from our goalie out to the 17 players we have in front of him,” said Warriors head coach Trevor Weisgerber. “It’s just not good enough when you start a game like that, and especially against a team like that.
“You have to be able to show up every night and play and we’ve done a good job of that the last 10-15 games where we’ve played very well. Today, we just weren’t ready to play, and if it’s 4-0 after 10 minutes, that’s not going to get the job done.”
Daxin Peterson got one back for Moose Jaw before the first was out, and Grady Hoffman scored with 46 seconds left in the second to make it a two-goal game, but Cole Peardon restored the three-goal lead with 5:48 to go in the third.
Roger McQueen and Peardon scored garbage-time goals to close out the contest.
Ethan Fechter allowed three goals on seven shots before giving way to Bain, who gave up three goals on 28 shots the rest of the way.
One day earlier, it was the Warriors who got off to an outstanding start, and it was Wyatt LaCoste who did most of the damage.
LaCoste had a natural hat trick before the game was 25 minutes old -- scoring 3:07 into the contest before adding goals at 2:28 and 4:31 of the second -- and the Warriors had an answer for every pushback the Blazers put together.
Case in point, shortly after LaCoste’s third marker, Trae Wilke and Hudson Malinoski scored to get the Blazers back within one, but Grady Hoffman scored 14 seconds after Malinoski’s goal to send the Warriors into the break up by two.
Mailnoski struck again at 4:22 of the third, but once again the Warriors answered, this time with Jackson Allan getting things done 59 seconds later.
Hoffman also had two assists to finish with a three-point afternoon.
Fechter turned aside 37 shots in the win, while the Moose Jaw fired 33 shots at Saskatoon’s Alex Garrett and Eric Kahl.
The Warriors are back in action Friday, Jan. 21 when they host the Saskatoon Contacts, and Weisgerber will be looking for a return to form from his crew.
“We’re happy with where we’ve come from the beginning of the year and as long as we’re learning from these games and understand we can’t play like that, we’ll continue to improve,” he said. “We’ve played a lot of the top teams and done very well, so we just have to keep building to make sure we’re in a good spot come playoff time and we’re playing the game the right way.”
Game time is 7 p.m. at Mosaic Place.
