The Moose Jaw Warriors will have a serious sense of deja vu after their loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers in Medicine Hat on Saturday night.
And not the good kind.
Missed opportunities, unbelievably bad breaks and yet another hot goaltender led to the Warriors dropping a 5-3 decision, snapping their six-game winning streak and seeing the Tigers come out of the weekend with their hold on second place in the Eastern Conference intact.
The whole game played out almost exactly like many losses the Warriors took earlier in the season, where a raft of chances would come up empty while their opponent scored on the rare times they had pressure.
Moose Jaw fell to 28-16-0-2 and are now four points back of the Tigers for second while sitting a single point up on Red Deer for third.
Medicine Hat opened scoring 4:50 into the game, and much like their opening goal on Friday, it was against the flow of play as Hunter St. Martin created a turnover, beat a Warriors defender to the outside and lifted a shot top shelf glove side.
Unlike Friday’s contest, the Warriors got that one right back, thanks to their power play. Brayden Yager did the honours, finishing off some nice movement in the zone with a perfect shot top shelf short side from the right faceoff circle.
Medicine Hat regained the lead with four minutes to play in the first. A neutral zone turnover led to a complete defensive breakdown by the Warriors, leading to a two on one and a one-timer goal off the stick of Vasyl Spilka.
The Warriors gave up their first power play in four-and-a-half periods midway through the second, but it mattered little as they’d hold the Tigers without a shot.
That wasn’t the case on Moose Jaw’s second power play with eight minutes to play in the period. The Warriors once again had great movement in the zone, and after a Kalem Parker shot from the point, Jagger Firkus would pounce on the rebound and rip a shot home.
Forty seconds later, they had their first lead of the game.
Brayden Schuurman stole the puck from Gavin McKenna at the Warriors blueline and went in on a breakaway before tucking the puck around Ethan McCallum for the 3-2 edge.
The Warriors had a chance to extend their lead early in the third thanks to breakaways by both Lynden Lakovic and Pavel McKenzie, but McCallum would come up with the save on both.
Moose Jaw did a great job of shutting down Medicine Hat much of the third period, but one of the most ridiculous bad breaks of the season led to the Tigers scoring the tying goal.
McKenna carried the puck into the Warriors zone and made a slick move to find space before sending a shot way wide and high of the net, only for a Warrior defender to tip the puck out of the air and past May in an attempt to knock it to a safe area.
A Warriors penalty shortly after that goal gave the Tigers a chance to take the lead, and they’d capitalize. Tomas Mrsic scored on a shot from the slot seven seconds into the man advantage with 5:38 remaining in regulation.
A minute after that goal, Yager had two chances in close fo tie the game but was stopped by McCallum each time.
Medicine Hat caught another break when Oasiz Weisblatt took a soft shot on net that once again went off a Warrior in front and past May, with that goal coming with just over three minutes to play.
That would cap scoring on the night, and the Warriors would absorb only their second loss in their last 12 games.
The Warriors are back in action on Friday when the Prince Albert Raiders are in town. Game time is 7 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
