Moose Jaw Warriors forward Calder Anderson has spent a whole lot of time watching his Western Hockey League team play this season.
Heading into action Friday night, the 19-year-old forward hadn’t played a game since the pre-season, when a lingering knee injury finally reached the point that something had to be done. Surgery it was, and five months and 54 games later, it was time for Anderson to finally return to the ice.
And while the visiting Prince Albert Raiders would go on to a 5-3 win at Mosaic Place, there was one hard and true highlight of the night -- none other than Calder Anderson scoring the game’s second goal 9:29 into the first period.
“It was great, especially with the fan base here, it's been a long time since I've played in front of fans like that so it was exciting to be back out there,” said Anderson, who also had plenty of family and friends in from Brandon to take in the contest. “It's good to get the first one out of the way and we'll continue to move on from here.”
Anderson’s goal was the product of some solid puck movement in the zone and came when Lucas Brenton hit him with a cross-ice pass to the right face-off circle, after which Anderson fired a shot past a diving Tikhon Chaika for his first WHL goal in well over a year.
“I think the first couple of shifts were to get the kinks out and it was nice to get rewarded with a goal when I had the chance,” Anderson said. “I just tried to do what I can control tonight, the little things like finishing checks and winning puck battles, that kind of stuff, and now we’ll just get ready for another big game (Saturday).”
Riley Niven opened with his third goal of the season, taking a pass from Atley Calvert at the Raiders blueline and going in one-on-one on a Prince Albert defender before getting off a shot that snuck past Chaika high glove side. The marker came only 1:36 into the proceedings.
Anderson hit the scoresheet next, but Prince Albert got one back with 6:28 to play in the period. Carson Latimer was rewarded for going hard to the net by poking home a rebound off a Keaton Sorenson point shot that Warriors’ rookie Jackson Unger couldn’t quite get a handle on.
While things looked good for the home team in the first, the second period was a completely different story.
The Raiders created a slew of chances and made the most of a good number of them as Reece Vitelli scored on the power play 4:37 into the period, Ozzy Weisblatt gave Prince Albert the lead three minutes later and Hayden Pakkala made it a two-goal game with 49 seconds remaining in the frame.
“I think we got a little complacent, we relaxed a little bit and it ended up costing us,” Anderson said in his assessment of the breakdown. “We gave them too much time and space and if you do that to any team, they'll capitalize. So we'll learn from it, watch video and move on.”
Moose Jaw got back within one five minutes into the third and it was once again the product of good old-fashioned hard work. Atley Calvert stripped the puck off a defender along the end boards and found Eric Alarie all alone on the slot and one quick shot high glove side later, the Warriors trailed 4-3.
Jagger Firkus and Robert Baco both had outstanding chances to tie the game as the period progressed, finding themselves on the receiving end of two-on-one cross-ice passes, but Chaika would come up with the save on both opportunities.
The Warriors wouldn’t get a better chance as the game ran down, and Vitelli added an empty-net goal with 58 seconds remaining to close out scoring.
Unger finished with 20 saves for the Warriors while Chaika had 23 stops for Prince Albert.
The loss saw Moose Jaw fall to 30-19-3-2 on the season, and they now sit 10 points back of Red Deer for third in the Eastern Conference and three points up on fifth-place Saskatoon.
The Warriors are right back at it Saturday with the aforementioned game against the Wheat Kings. Game time is 7 p.m. at Mosaic Place.
