The Moose Jaw Warriors have also had their share of outstanding periods this season, and the second frame of their game Saturday against the Pats in Regina was certainly one of those.
In the end, the Warriors nearly completed an amazing comeback before falling 6-5.
Regina scored four straight goals to open the game and led 5-1 early in the second before the Warriors replied in force, nearly coming all the way back before taking the one-goal loss.
Moose Jaw fell to 13-14-2-1 with the loss, Regina improved to 12-15-0-0.
The Pats didn’t take long to get on the board -- Borya Valis beat his defender to the outside on the rush and got a shot off in close on Jackson Unger, who made the stop. The rebound dropped right in the crease, though, and Tanner Howe was in the right place at the right time to poke the rebound into the empty net.
The opening goal came only 1:03 into the game.
The Warriors looked to get that one back on the game’s first power play, but Regina would become the latest team to take advantage of Moose Jaw’s season-long shorthanded goal woes. Cole Dubinsky forced a turnover at the Warriors blueline and went in all alone on Unger before giving the Pats a 2-0 lead at 9:05.
Cole Carrier then made it 3-0 three minutes later, finishing off a tic-tac-toe passing play with a quick shot from the slot.Two minutes after that goal, Logan Nihoff made it 4-0, finishing off a drive into the Regina zone that caught the Warriors flat footed with a shot from the slot into the wide-open net.
The Warriors looked to get a bit of life with 23 seconds to play in the first, as Cade Hayes finished off a goalmouth scramble to trail by three heading into the second.
Layton Feist made it 5-1 with 3:32 into the second period, scoring on the power play after the Warriors were hit with a double-minor penalty three minutes earlier.
And with that, the ice completely tilted in the Warriors favour.
Brayden Yager got one back for Moose Jaw two minutes after Feist’s goal, breaking in on a two-on-one with Jagger Firkus and beating Regina’s Drew Sim low glove side.
Nathan Pilling then scored his first WHL goal on the power play at 8:03 of the second, deflecting a shot in the slot past Sim to get the Warriors back within a pair.
The Pats took three back-to-back-to-back penalties over the final six minutes of the period, and on the third chance, Atley Calvert took a back-door feed from Ryder Korczak and redirected the chance home to make it a 5-4 game.
How drastically did the game swing? Regina was outshooting Moose Jaw 20-9 early in the second; by period’s end, the shots were 24-23 Pats.
The Warriors had a ton of pressure in the third but couldn’t find a way to beat Sim and tie the game, and sure enough, the Pats would take advantage of one of their few breaks in the frame. Logan Nihoff forced a turnover behind the Warriors net, got a pass out to Howe in front, and he put a shot five hole with 3:04 to play.
Firkus saw to it the game wouldn’t end on that note, though, as he’d pull the puck out of a crowd at the side of the net and fire a shot home to once again get the Warriors back within one with 2:21 to play.
The Warriors used the empty net to continue the pressure late in the game, but wouldn’t find the tying goal.
Unger faced 27 shots in taking the loss, while the Warriors fired 32 at Sim, including 14 in the final period.
The two teams are right back at it on Saturday night, only this time back at Mosaic Place. Game time is 7 p.m.
