Jakin Smallwood scored 1:46 into overtime to give the Ice a 6-5 victory over the Warriors, capping off a season sweep for the Ice with four straight wins over Moose Jaw — and all four coming in competitive games.
Another tough loss, but one born of another good effort in head coach Mark O’Leary’s eyes.
“I think to look at this as anything less than a positive is a miss,” O’Leary said. “Our group played real well tonight, we challenged them to defend off the rush and on the right side of the puck, and they did that. We spotted them two, but the bottom line is I thought our guys responded in the right way. We didn’t change our work ethic or complete and start to finish we did what we needed to do to earn the point.”
Winnipeg got off to their traditional fast start against the Warriors, as Jakin Smallwood scored just over a minute into the contest on a wildly bouncing re-directed shot and Skyler Bruce extended their lead to 2-0 with a power play goal six minutes later.
The Warriors were able to push back quickly, though, and after a stretch of play in the Ice zone were able to get one back. Riley Krane took a feed from Brayden Yager alone in front of the net, batted a couple of rebounds off Ice goaltender Carl Stankowski before slipping a shot home with 7:01 to play.
Cade Hayes then tied the game with just over a minute to play in the period, finding the puck at the side of the net on the power play and lifting a shot home.
Krane ended up in a scrap with Anson McMaster with 5:47 gone in the second period, and with his assist on Hayes’ first-period marker, had himself a Gordie Howe hat trick -- a goal, an assist and a fight -- before the game was half old.
“We talk about it all the time, he plays with the Moose Jaw Warrior DNA,” O’Leary said. “His net-front presence and work along the walls and willingness to put his body on the line for his teammates, any time those guys get rewarded with points, it’s a positive.”
Jagger Firkus capped off another stretch of Warriors momentum with his team’s third goal with 6:22 remaining in the period. The 16-year-old showed his hands in close, knocking home a rebound during a scramble in front of the net to put Moose Jaw up 3-2.
The Warriors took an early penalty in the third, and lo and behold, WHL scoring leader Peyton Krebs would make them pay, tying the game with 2:30 gone in the frame.
The tie game wouldn’t last long, though, as team captain Daemon Hunt would give the Warriors back the lead 1:30 later, breaking in from the blue line and snapping a quick shot low past Stankowski.
Just over a minute after that marker, Bruce would score his second, taking advantage of another bad bounce to put a shot past Bilous with 6:56 gone in the period.
All that did was set the stage for Cade Hayes to finally break through on one of his many brilliant individual scoring chances this season.
Hayes broke into the Winnipeg zone, blew wide past a Winnipeg defender and to the front of the net before slipping a shot under Stankowksi with just over five minutes remaining.
O’Leary revealed that the injury Hayes had suffered earlier in the season is still bothering him, and has played a role in holding back what was a star-making season in the early going.
“For Cade, it’s a tough one for him.” O’Leary said. “He’s battling injuries right now and he’s doing a lot of work behind the scenes just to be able to play right now. It’s a gutsy, gritty effort for him to get himself ready to play games and you like to see guys like that rewarded.”
The Warriors couldn’t stop Krebs in the final couple minutes, though, as he would come off the bench and score the tying goal with the Stankowski pulled with 1:12 left in regulation.
Mirwald finished with 37 saves for the Warriors, while Stankowski had 24 stops for the ice.
Moose Jaw fell to 8-11-2-0 and remain in fifth place in the East Division, a point back of the Regina Pats.
And that’s exactly who they’ll face on Saturday in their final meeting of the season, with game time at 8 p.m.
