The Moose Jaw Warriors might have a reason for concern with their 7-2 Western Hockey League pre-season loss to the Swift Current Broncos on Thursday night in Swift Current.
If it was the 2025-26 season.
As it stands, the Broncos kids were able to get the better of the Warriors kids in the first game of the exhibition season for both clubs, a game that offered a look at how the two teams might stack up in a couple of seasons.
“I think even going into the game it’s never about wins and losses at this time of year,” said Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary. “Every time the puck is dropped you prefer to come out with a win, but I’m a glass-half-full kind of guy and some of the changes to our system and structure started to show up in the third period.
“That’s what we’re really looking for, an individual showing they can follow a plan and then from an overarching theme with the team, we want to play a certain and it’s starting to show up.”
Even with the seven goals, O’Leary was happy with what he saw from the team’s defence and how the youngsters have progressed even in the short time they’ve been with the team this season.
“From the veteran side of things, there were some good things and as a group on defence, I thought they played pretty well last night,” he said. “They were defending well, and their play with the puck really drove the play as the game went on. So those are some good things we can take from that and it was with young guys and a few older guys, so that’s positive.”
It didn’t take long for either team to get on the board. Sawyer Dingman scored for Swift Current at 1:26 of the first period and only 1:15 later Harper Lolacher would jump on a turnover at the Warriors blueline and go in on a breakaway before tying the game.
There things remained until the second period, when Luke Mistelbacher and Maddix McCagherty scored to give Swift Current a 3-1 lead through two.
McCagherty added his second goal in the opening minute of the third, but the Warriors were once again able to respond quickly. This time, Ethan Semeniuk took the puck out of the Moose Jaw zone and ended up putting a harmless-looking shot on net from the right boards that eluded Broncos goaltender Berney Weston.
That was the end of the good news for the Warriors on the night, though, as Connor Gabriel, Ty Coupland and Van Eger all scored for the Broncos over the remainder of the period to take the win.
Dmitri Fortin got the start for the Warriors and allowed two goals in his period and a half of work before giving way to Josh Banini who surrendered five goals through the remainder of the contest.
Weston went the distance and stopped 25 shots to earn the win, while the Broncos had 23 shots total.
The two teams are right back at it on Saturday night in Assiniboia, with the Southland Co-Op Centre sold out well in advance. Coach O’Leary will be looking for an improved effort from a much older line-up.
“There will be some 08’s on the backend, but guys like (Denton) Mateychuk, (Jagger) Firkus and (Atley) Calvert, they’re going away to NHL camp on Tuesday so it’ll be nice to get them in one game before they go and good for the people for Assiniboia to see some of those guys,” he said. “It should be a great atmosphere, it’s sold out and I think it’s a great idea and will be a fun experience. I know it’s been done in other markets, so I’m excited to see what it’s like and it should be a really good game.”
