It was one of those games for the Moose Jaw Warriors on Saturday, and perhaps it was fitting that it came on the team’s Halloween Night.
The Tri-City Americans took advantage of a handful of breakdowns and made the best use of their opportunities to take a 6-2 victory over the Warriors in Western Hockey League action at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
It wasn’t for a lack of chances by the Warriors, either, as Americans goaltender Thomas Suchanek turned in a stellar performance with a host of steady saves despite seeing strings of pressure from the home team.
At the other end of the ice, Tri-City did their best Michael Myers impression and just kept coming, eventually scoring three unanswered goals in the third period to pull away and finish off an impressive performance on their long Eastern Conference road swing.
“It was a tough game for us, we ran into some penalty trouble in the back half of the game and they’re the top power play in the league right now, we definitely can’t do that in a game like this,” said Warriors forward Brayden Yager, referring to the four straight minors the Warriors took in the final six minutes of the game and Tri-City’s 32.7 per cent power play.
“We had a bit of a streak going there and it sucks that it came to an end, but we’ll bounce back and be ready to go next weekend,”
Tri-City opened scoring 5:17 into the contest, using some slick puck movement on the power play to set up Lukas Dragacevic at the point, and the young defenceman would sneak a shot through traffic top corner.
Both teams had their share of opportunities through the remainder of the period, but both Warriors goaltender Jackson Unger and Suchanek made big saves to keep the score where it was.
The Warriors broke through 5:11 into the second period, taking advantage of their second power play of the game in the process. Yager got a shot off from the point that deflected off Suchanek right to Denton Mateychuk at the side of the net, and the Warriors captain put a quick shot home to tie the game 1-1.
The tie didn’t last long, though. Tri-City finished off a run of pressure in the Warriors zone four minutes later by creating an offensive zone turnover on Moose Jaw’s next trip down the ice, going in on a three-on-one and having Parker Bell beat Unger with a shot low glove side.
Two minutes after that goal, the Americans struck again, this time when Drew Freer perfectly tipped a shot from the point by Marc Lajoie top corner.
The Warriors got one back before the second was out, as Max Wanner got off a one-timer from Jagger Firkus and snuck the shot through traffic along the ice and past Suchanek with 4:54 remaining.
That would be the last time the Warriors would beat Suchanek, something that was naturally a source of frustration for Yager and his teammates, especially in light of their 32 shots on the night.
“If you just keep shooting and they’ll start going in, but also getting inside and just finding a way to smash home some rebounds,” Yager said when asked what could have helped their offence. “There were lots of chances where he gave up rebounds and we just didn’t do a good enough job of getting inside.”
Moose Jaw looked to have a chance to tie the game early in the third on their fourth power play of the game, but it Tri-City would extend their lead instead. Ethan Ernst took advantage of a neutral zone turnover and went in on a breakaway, only to lose possession of the puck -- but have it sneak through the five-hole on Unger and increase the Americans’ lead to 4-2.
Tri-City increased their lead to 5-2 with 8:35 to play in the game when Tyson Greenway outduelled a Warrior defender in the crease and lifted a shot top shelf.
Adam Mechura made it a four-goal lead with 3:59 on the clock, scoring on the second of back-to-back Warriors penalties.
That would mark the end of the offence on the night, as Tri-City improved to 6-5-0-0 on the season and Moose Jaw dropped to 8-5-0-0 with their first loss in their last five outings.
The good thing is this is a far different Warriors team than the last two seasons, where losses had a tendency to snowball. Yager remains confident the team will be able to rebound when they take on the Raiders in Prince Albert on Friday.
“We’re a really tight group, and I think helps being able to talk to each other, and especially with our coach having an open door, it’s nice to be able to get some feedback after a game like this,” he said. “It’s been good for us to be able to lean on each other a bit, so we’ll do that and bounce back on Friday.”
Next home action for the Warriors is Saturday, Nov. 6 when they host the currently undefeated Red Deer Rebels (12-0-0-0). Game time is 7 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
