Their most recent contest in Prince Albert against the East Division-leading Raiders offered the lastest example, as the Warriors were able to hang with the defending league champions before eventually falling 3-2.
The Raiders got on the board first, with Ozzy Weisblatt scoring 8:02 into the contest. Prince Albert kept the pressure on after the goal, and things could have gotten out of hand score-wise early if not for Warriors netminder Boston Bilous, who made a handful of impressive saves against his former team – including a diving cross-crease stop on Aliaksei Protas shortly after Weisblatt’s marker – to keep the score 1-0.
Bilous would end up with 17 stops in the first period alone, and the Warriors would reward his efforts when Cade Hayes scored on the power play with 1:57 remaining in the first.
Ryder Korczak then gave the Warriors the lead 6:41 into the second period with another goal on the man advantage, and suddenly an upset was in the cards.
The Raiders are in first in the division for a reason, though, and they showed it the remainder of the game – first when Kaiden Guhle tied the contest with 10:54 to play in the second, and again when Protas scored the eventual game winner 1:12 into the third.
Bilous would finish the game with 40 saves. The Warriors fired 16 shots at the Raiders’ Carter Serhyenko.
The Warriors now hold a 14-40-4-0 record and sit eight points up on last place Swift Current with 10 games remaining in the season.
Next action for the Tribe will come Tuesday when they travel to Regina. Their next game at Mosaic Place is Friday in the first game of a home-and-home against the Winnipeg Ice, with game time at 7 p.m.
