It was one of those games for the Moose Jaw Warriors on Saturday night at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
The Warriors struggled from start to finish to deal with the Calgary Hitmen forecheck, leading to an unbelievable number of defensive zone turnovers, and the kind of result one would expect when such things happen.
The Hitmen scored three unanswered goals in the third period and would go on to a 5-3 victory over the Warriors In Western Hockey League action on Nickelodeon Night at the Hangar.
Moose Jaw fell to 34-18-0-2 and missed an opportunity to put some breathing room between themselves and the Medicine Hat Tigers in the Eastern Conference, with the Warriors continuing to hold a one-point lead in second place.
“Obviously they did a pretty good job (on the forecheck) but it’s kind of on us to manage puck better,” said Warriors forward Brayden Yager, who scored the Warrrors third goal in the second period. “I don’t think we did a good enough job getting pucks out of our zone or once we got the red line getting pucks deep and going to work. That’s on us and we’ll definitely have to be better next game.”
The Warriors got off to a great start and had a handful of scoring chances in the first five minutes before Calgary’s Ethan Moore was hit with a double minor for high sticking Rilen Kovacevic 5:43 into the proceedings.
The Hitmen would actually get the better chances through the first half of the panlaty, but Atley Calvert would give Moose Jaw the lead at the 8:52 mark. Martin Rysavy took the initial shot on net that Alex Garrett was able to stop, but Calvert was right there to put both the Calgary goaltender and the puck into the net for the 1-0 lead.
The Warriors continued to carry the play as the period progressed, but the trend of sloppy defensive play in their own zone led to Calgary scoring back-to-back goals 16 seconds apart late in the period.
Sawyer Mayes opened scoring for the Hitmen when he tipped a Carter Yakemchuk point shot with 1:13 to play in the period, and Carson Wetsch scored on a goalmouth scramble immediately after for a 2-1 Calgary lead after one.
Calvert figured into the proceedings again on Moose Jaw’s second goal, breaking across the front of the net before sending a pass back across the grain to Lynden Lakovic, who had a wide-open net to shoot at and would make no mistake at 8:04.
An offensive zone turnover involving the two guys you wouldn’t want to give such a chance to led to the Warriors’ third goal 45 seconds later. Jagger Firkus picked up a loose puck at the top of the faceoff circles and broke in on a short two-on-one with Yager, with Yager putting home the cross-crease pass for a 3-2 Moose Jaw lead.
The Hitmen continued to use their forecheck to create havoc early in the third period, and it paid off quickly. Ben Kindel picked off a Jackson Unger pass behind the net and put the puck in the open net only 52 seconds into the final period.
Calgary then took the lead with 5:33 remaining when Keets Fawcett got off a perfect shot from the right faceoff circle that found the corner top shelf glove side.
Oliver Tulk then finished things off with 46 seconds to play, as Maxim Muranov created another turnover and found Tulk for the goal in front of the net.
“They outworked us tonight, they deserved it more than us tonight and we were just too complacent,” Yager said. “We just have to be better, we have lots of skill but at the end of the day it comes down work ethic.”
Unger turned aside 28 shots in taking the loss, while Garrett had 33 saves for the Hitmen.
The Warriors now embark on an eight-games-in-14-days road trip that will include their first trip to the U.S. Division since the 2019-20 campaign. They open the trip on Monday when they’re in Swift Current to face the Broncos.
Overtime… As part of Nickelodeon Night, the Warriors wore special Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles jerseys, which were auctioned off during a silent auction throughout the game. All proceeds from the auction will go to the Jim Pattison Children’s Hospital Foundation through the Children’s Miracle Network.
