But on Saturday night, Brayden Tracey and Adam Evanoff were back on the ice at Mosaic Place, only this time wearing the blue and white of the Victoria Royals instead of Moose Jaw Warriors red and black.
And things couldn’t have gone much better for the duo in their return, as the Royals scored three goals in the first and third periods on their way to a 7-2 win.
For Tracey, it was a chance to take the ice against the team that turned him into an NHL first round draft pick last season and helped mould him into the top flight WHL player he is today.
“It’s obviously a special moment for me and Adam, this is where we got our feet wet and to be back feels unbelievable,” said Tracey, who was held without a point in the contest for only the third time in 10 games since joining the Royals.
“Vic welcomed me really well, they have great fans out there, but this is a special place for me. No matter where I am in life, Moose Jaw is where I started and deep down I’ll always have a soft spot for this city.”
The Royals arrived in Moose Jaw on Thursday after playing in Regina during the fifth game of their biennial East Division road swing, meaning both players had a chance to catch up with old teammates, friends and billets during the off day Friday.
“It was good to catch up, everybody in this organization was really good to me when I was here and I definitely owe a lot to them so it was good to see them and thank them one more time,” Evanoff said.
“Yeah, I was able to see pretty much everyone, it was pretty cool that we had a bit of time and it worked out really well,” added Tracey.
Victoria Royals and former Moose Jaw Warriors forward Brayden Tracey sporting the colours of his new team.“It’s been an adjustment period, but things are going pretty well now,” Evanoff said. “The team was great to me, they were pretty up front and made it really easy to fit in. It all made for a pretty smooth transition for me.”
The Warriors, meanwhile, continued to battle through the season their incredibly young line-up and a sudden spate of injuries to some of their top-flight players – Warriors captain Owen Hardy, overage defenceman Carson Sass, NHL draft prospect Daemon Hunt and defenceman Cole Jordan were all in the press box on Saturday night.
It showed against the much more experienced Royals, who had goals from Gary Haden and Kaid Oliver in the first 10 minutes before Eric Alarie got the Warriors on the board with a power play marker at the 10:45 mark of the period.
Brandon Cutler scored the contest’s next two goals late in the first and second periods to give Victoria a 4-1 lead.
Kade Runke got one back with his second goal of the season 4:09 into the third, but Carson Miller would add a pair of goals in the next three minutes of the period and Riley Gannon would close out scoring with the first goal of his WHL career with 3:08 to play.
Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary didn’t mince words postgame on WarriorsTV.
“I didn’t think we earned any bounces tonight, that was one of our worst games in a long time,” O’Leary said. “We’ve been trying to find the positives in things, and maybe we will on Monday but we’re going to have to dig real hard. That was start to finish one of the worst games we had and I don’t think anyone in there feels really good about it. It’s one thing to take it on the chin and feel like you might have got the wrong side of bounces, but tonight we didn’t do anything to deserve any better.”
Brock Gould made 31 saves in the Warriors net, Evanoff had a 15-save performance for Victoria.
The Warriors fell to 12-32-2-0 on the second and are now winless in their last four and have one win their last 10 games.
Next action for the Tribe comes Wednesday when they travel to Winnipeg to face the Ice. Next home action is Saturday, Feb. 8 against the Saskatoon Blades. Game time is 7 p.m. at Mosaic Place.
