The Moose Jaw Warriors found themselves off to a good start against the Saskatoon Blades on Sunday afternoon, but in the end it was only the solid play of goaltender Adam Evanoff that kept things close once all was said and done.
Evanoff battled through a host of solid Saskatoon scoring chances in the second and third periods to keep the Warriors in the game, but the Tribe offence wasn't able to help him out in a 4-0 loss at SaskTel Centre.
The Blades got on the board first, and in somewhat controversial fashion when Randen Schmidt came out of the box after a penalty, cross-checked Warriors defenceman David Homola off the puck and fed Zach Huber at the top of the circles. One one-timer later, and the Blades had a 1-0 lead with 7:17 gone in the second period.
Things didn't get any better for the Warriors as the frame continued, with their next power play offering a perfect example. With Chase Wouters serving a delay of game penalty, the Warriors gave up two shorthanded breakaways – the second a 2-on-0 that developed inside the Warriors zone – and were outshot 4-1 on the man advantage. In fact, the Warriors failed to record a shot on three straight power plays before their chance on that opportunity.
Rubbing salt in the wound was only seconds after that penalty ended the Blades took advantage of another odd-man rush, with Tristen Robbins beating a beleagured Evanoff with a lazer beam of a shot top corner.
“We're down by two and they push, and we broke, we didn't bend,” said Warriors head coach Tim Hunter. “Usually we bend a bit but we didn't tonight and we just didn't have enough to push back. But we learned a lot in the game today, if we do things a certain way it works and if we get away from it we run into problems.”
Evanoff, in fact, was the only reason the game wasn't out of hand after two periods. The 19-year-old continued his impressive play since returning from hip surgery with 18 saves in the second period alone, the majority of those coming on legitimate scoring chances.
“That's what we're going to need out of him, to play that well, and that's what we're going to need out of our back end going forward,” Hunter said.
Not helping matters was the fact Brayden Tracey was out of the line-up, suspended a game due to a check-from-behind major taken the night before in their 7-3 loss to Swift Current. The club is also dealing with injuries, which resulted in the team calling up Atley Calvert and Max Wanner from the AAAs for the weekend.
“Being short, down to nine forwards, that made it tough, but they only played nine forwards most of the game as well,” Hunter said. “So it's just being better than the guy next to you, and that's something we'll learn from and get ready for the next game."
Things didn't change in the third, and the Blades finally broke through again when Riley McKay scored on the Blades' 44th shot of the night with 4:10 to play in the contest. Huber added an empty net goal in the final minute to close out scoring.
Evanoff would finish with 46 saves on the night.
Koen MacInnes got the start for Saskatoon and made 20 saves to earn the shutout.
The Warriors were 0-for-7 on the power play, Saskatoon was 0-for-6.
Moose Jaw dropped back to .500 at 9-9-1-0 and sit a point up on Brandon for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.
Saskatoon improved to 12-8-1-1.
The Warriors are back in action Friday, Nov. 22 in Medicine Hat before returning home to take on the Calgary Hitmen on Saturday, Nov. 23. Game time is 7 p.m. at Mosaic Place.
