The Ewing Theory is in full effect for the Moose Jaw Warriors.
The theory comes from former NBA superstar and franchise player Patrick Ewing leaving the New York Knicks back in the 90s and the team immediately improving despite losing their best player -- with the idea being that a team losing elite contributors can still win with solid overall team play.
With captain Denton Mateychuk, forward Brayden Yager and forward Jagger Firkus all away at the World Junior Hockey Championship with Team Canada, the Moose Jaw Warriors ran their win streak to four games thanks to a 5-4 overtime win in Regina on Monday afternoon.
That means that the Warriors are now 4-1-0-0 through the first five games of eight with top players top players, a solid record for a crew that many onlookers expected to go on a long losing streak over the Christmas holidays.
Moose Jaw improved to 21-14-0-2 with the win, leapfrogging the Brandon Wheat Kings into third place in the Eastern Conference and sitting two points back of the Medicine Hat Tigers for second.
The Warriors had a couple of chances in the first 10 minutes, with Atley Calvert having the best of those when he put a shot off the crossbar, but it would be the Pats who got on the board first.
Defenceman Jaren Brinson took a pass from Tanner Howe while pinching in and put a perfect shot top corner blocker side through traffic with 8:44 gone.
The Warriors received their first power play of the game not long after, and Martin Rysavy would tie the game at 7:45. The goal came off some slick puck movement in the zone and a couple of won battles along the boards, leading to Lynden Lakovic finding Rysavy in the slot for his 12th of the season.
Moose Jaw’s Noah Degenstein was hit with a bad-luck high sticking double minor with six minutes to play in the period, but the Warriors’ solid play on the penalty kill as of late would see them get through the adversity unscathed.
Regina took a high-sticking minor of their own moments after the kill, and Rysavy would pick up his second of the period. Calvert got a shot off in close before putting his own rebound to the top of the crease, and Rysavy would outduel two players to jam the puck home with 59 seconds left in the period.
Neither team had much by way of extended zone time in the second, with the Warriors having the ice slightly tilted in their favour. Dakota MacIntosh had one of the best scoring chances of the period when his shot from the slot with five minutes remaining went off the post.
Jackson Unger had a big save to preserve the lead with 1:30 remaining in the period, diving to get his glove on a scoring chance by Braxton Whitehead.
Moments later, the Warriors made it 3-1. Calvert took a shot that rebounded right to Rilen Kovacevic at the side of the goal, and he’d knock the puck home for his first as a Warrior with 45 seconds remaining.
Regina got back within one with 7:45 to play in the third when Tye Spencer simply spun and put a shot on net from the right faceoff circle, only to have it find the back of the net.
Less than a minute later the Pats looked to have scored the tying goal, but Jaxsin Vaughn was correctly ruled to have kicked the puck in.
The Warriors then took their second penalty of the game with 5:17 to play and held Regina to a single good scoring opportunity before striking for the third time on the man advantage with 2:07 remaining.
Calvert simply put a shot toward the front of the goal off the rush, only for the puck to bounce off a defender and in for his 22nd of the season.
The Pats kept coming, though, and with the goaltender pulled, Sam Oremba scored on a two-on-one with 1:39 to play. Brayden Schuurman was the hit with a rare face-off violation penalty on the ensuing face-off and Tye Spencer would score on the 6-on-4 to tie the game 4-4 with 1:15 left.
Unger made a fantastic save on Spencer midway through the overtime period, and that would give the Warriors an opportunity for the winning goal.
Pavel McKenzie forced turnover behind the Regina net and found Ethan Semeniuk with a backhand pass to the side of the goal, and Semeniuk would put a shot top shelf glove side for the winner 3:35 into overtime.
Unger turned aside 23 shots for his league-leading 18th win of the season, the Warriors had 25 on Kelton Pyne.
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.
