Make no mistake, the Moose Jaw Warriors are on an absolute roll right now.
Their Western Hockey League contest against the Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday night offered just the latest example, as the Warriors dominated the first period and would go on to a 5-2 victory on the road.
The Warriors scored four times in the opening frame and held off a mid-game pushback by the Tigers on the way to securing their eighth-straight win and eighth-straight game with at least a point.
The winning run is the longest for the team since an eight-game streak during the 2018-19 campaign.
Majid Khaddoura got the Warriors on the board a little over two minutes into the game, scoring on a shot from the point that found its way through all sorts of traffic and past Tigers goaltender Beckett Langkow.
Two minutes after that marker, Ryder Korczak took a slick pass from Robert Baco while breaking into the Medicine Hat zone and made no mistake with a quick shot under Langkow’s blocker.
Eric Alarie -- who looked to have scored the Warriors first goal on a tip but just missed -- made it 3-0 before the game was 10 minutes minutes old, taking a feed to the top of the left face-off circle from Korczak and rifling a quick shot top shelf at 9:23.
The onslaught didn’t stop there, and the next goal was a milestone. Warriors defenceman Marek Howell -- the team’s first round pick in the 2022 Prospects Draft -- scored his first WHL goal with a perfect wrist shot from the top of the slot high blocker side. Thomas Tien drew an assist, and for good reason, as his hard work on the end boards and perfect pass back to Howell set up the goal.
Brayden Boehm got one back for Medicine Hat 1:57 into the second, with his harmless-looking shot from deep in the Warriors zone eluding Jackson Unger.
The Tigers carried play much of the period but were mostly kept to the outside and only generated a handful of chances.
Medicine Hat pulled within two with 6:30 gone in the third, with a great individual effort seeing Teague Patton take the puck off the boards, circle into the slot and put a shot high blocker side past a completely screened Unger.
The Warriors retook their three-goal lead with 5:57 to play, and it came after a stellar power play that saw chance after chance stopped by Langkow before a Jagger Firkus one-timer from the top of the slot finally broke through.
Korczak picked up two assists to go with his goal and is now eighth in WHL scoring with 17 goals and 55 points in 45 games. Firkus is now 10th in scoring with 26 goals and 54 points.
Denton Mateychuk had two assists and is third in defenceman scoring, one point out of top spot, with eight goals and 40 points. Matthew Gallant also picked up a pair of helpers.
Alarie finished with his first career Gordie Howe hat trick after a third period fight with Oasiz Weisblatt. The seven minutes in penalties he took on the play give him all of 17 on the season.
Unger finished with 29 saves to earn the win, while the Warriors fired 30 at Langkow.
Moose Jaw is now off until Wednesday when they host the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Game time is 7 p.m. at Mosaic Place.
