It was one of those nights for the Moose Jaw Warriors.
Twenty-four hours after taking a 5-4 shootout win over the Medicine Hat Tigers in Medicine Hat, the Warriors allowed five unanswered goals and would go on to a 5-1 loss at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
The Warriors fell to 11-7-0-0 on the season and remain in fourth place in the Eastern Conference, two points up on Regina and four points back of Saskatoon. Medicine Hat improved to 5-9-3-1 and sit in 11th place in the 12-team conference.
“You have to give Medicine Hat credit, they work and they have a lot of young skill but they compete hard and they play the right way,” said Warriors assistant coach Scott King. “They make you earn everything you get out there, but I thought we had chances in the first period to take over and they were able to hang around. We had chances to tie it, too, we had a real good look on the power play to make it 3-2 and if we get that one to go it maybe changes the game.”
The Warriors actually got on the board first, taking advantage of their first power play at 2:48 of the opening frame by scoring eight seconds later when Brayden Yager put home a shot from the point top-corner glove side.
Medicine Hat tied things up with 2:47 to play in the first, as Brendan Lee broke free down the right side and finished off a two-on-one with Andrew Basha.
The game had been fairly even to that point, but when the two teams came out after the break, the ice tilted dramatically.
The Tigers took the lead 1:11 into the second on a defensive breakdown in the Warriors zone that allowed Shane Smith to get free in front of Connor Ungar and bank a shot off the Moose Jaw netminder and in.
Lee scored his second of the game seven minutes later, pulling off a nifty toe drag as he broke into the Warriors zone and putting a low shot into the corner glove side on Ungar. Two minutes later it was 4-1 Medicine Hat, with a shot to a similar spot by Brayden Boehm ending Ungar’s night with a shorthanded goal.
The second-period onslaught didn’t stop there. Boehm scored his second of the period at 15:14, breaking unhindered down his wing and beating Jackson Unger five-hole from the left face-off circle.
“Puck management was an issue again tonight,” King said. “There were too many times coming through the neutral zone where we should be making the smart play, sliding in, getting behind them and getting in on the forecheck. Then we’d try and make a pass through somebody or through a pair of feet and it doesn’t work, goes back the other way and twice they made us pay… These are lessons we have to continue to learn, and eventually we have to start to learn them.”
It was a tough night for the Warriors goaltenders, too, as both allowed goals they would most certainly like back. It’s a difficult complaint to make, though, especially with how well both Ungar and Unger have played this season.
“It is what it is, it’s junior hockey, our goaltending had been phenomenal all year so that’s never a concern for us,” King said. “We know those guys will bounce back, they always do, and we just have to be better in front of them.”
Ungar finished with 13 saves in 30:15 of work, Unger turned aside nine shots the rest of the way. Beckett Langkow stopped 30 shots to earn the win.
If the Warriors were several games under .500 and regularly struggling, the tone after the loss might have been different. But as even the best teams in the Western Hockey League will tell you, off nights will happen, especially when dealing with young up-and-coming players. It’s with that in mind that the Warriors will turn to simply preparing for their next game: a meeting with the Prince Albert Raiders at the Moose Jaw Events Centre on Tuesday, Nov. 15.
“This is a great group, they put the work in,” King said. “There are going to be nights like this, so we’ll just stick with it and continue to work at practice, we’re not going to get down from this. We’d like to have got both this weekend but it didn’t happen, we’re still on the right track to have a good year and we’ll keep pushing forward.”
