It’s starting to become a bit of a broken record with the Moose Jaw Warriors as of late, but oh, what a difference a day can make.
One night after struggling to find the back of the net against the Calgary Hitmen, the Warriors scored four in the first period against the Canadian Hockey League’s top-ranked team and would go on to a 6-2 victory over the Seattle Thunderbirds at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
“I think we were ready to go,” said Warriors captain Denton Mateychuk. “We left some stuff on the table the night before in our game against Calgary (a 2-1 shootout loss), and you could feel it in the room, we were ready to go and we were upset about the game the night before. That just fuels it and when you play a team like that you have to be ready to go from the first minute.”
The Warriors improved to 24-13-0-1 on the season, moving three points clear of Calgary for fourth place in the Eastern Conference and remaining six points back of Saskatoon for third.
To put into context how big the win was, Seattle is first overall in the WHL with a 28-5-1-1 record and had points in 14 straight games heading into Moose Jaw, sporting a 13-0-0-1 record over that span.
That could have been intimidating, but as has been the case all season, the Warriors found a way to rise to the occasion against a team ahead of them in the standings.
“I think that’s what you have to think about every team,” Mateychuk said. “You look at a team like Winnipeg, they have a lot of top end guys, and it’s the same with these guys. You have to be ready for anything, every shift you have to be aware whose out there and we did a good job of that tonight.”
Part of the Warriors’ success on the night could have been good karma -- the team was wearing special Spongebob Squarepants jerseys as part of Nickelodeon night and in support of the Children’s Miracle Network and the Jim Pattinson Children’s Hospital.
The Warriors got on the board first, with Mateychuk a major catalyst in the opening goal. Mateychuk hit Matthew Gallant with a long pass from deep in his own zone to the Seattle blueline, followed by Gallant setting up Josh Hoekstra in the slot. A shot low blocker side later, and Moose Jaw had a 1-0 lead 5:34 into the contest.
Just over five minutes later, it was 2-0 Warriors. Atley Calvert outduelled a Seattle defender on the end boards, found Brayden Yager in the corner, and a quick backhand into the slot led to Eric Alarie one-timing a shot blocker side at the 11-minute mark.
A too-many-men penalty with six minutes remaining gave the Warriors a chance to extend their lead, and they’d do just that. Calvert played finisher this time, capping a tic-tac-toe passing play with Mateychuk and Yager.
They weren’t done there, either, as only 38 seconds after that goal, Robert Baco found a rebound at the side of the net and tucked the puck home for his first goal since returning to the team from the World Junior Hockey Championship.
The Thunderbirds would get one back before the period was out, with Jared Davidson potting a loose puck at the side of the net with 2:19 remaining in the frame.
Ryder Korczak replied with the swiftness for the Warriors in the second period, scoring 1:46 in on another power play opportunity by beating Seattle goaltender Scott Ratzlaff short side from the left face-off circle to give the Warriors a 5-1 lead.
A Seattle power play led to Gracyn Sawchyn pulling his team back within three, as he found a rebound in front and banked it off Ungar’s pad and into the net.
The Warriors’ power play struck again 10:01 into the period, and it was another slick tic-tac-toe passing play. Calvert was the beneficiary of his usual stake-out in front of the net, putting home a shot after Yager and Jagger Firkus worked the puck around the zone.
The goal gave Yager four assists on the night and saw him move up to a tie for 11th in league scoring with 18 goals and 48 points. And while the rise on the stats table is nice, it isn’t what Yager is overly worried about.
“I like to focus on a lot of other things than points because points aren’t everything, but it’s still nice when you can have a night like that,” he said. “It feels good, but there are a lot of other details I try to focus on too that are just as important.”
That goal also brought Ratzlaff’s night to an end, with Team Canada gold-medal-winning goaltender Thomas Milic getting a nice round of applause from the Warriors faithful when he took over duties in the crease.
Milic was joined by Seattle defencemen Nolan Allan and Kevin Korchinski along with forward Reid Schaefer in winning gold for Canada on Thursday night.
Calvert also finds himself on a nice little run as of late, scoring five goals and eight points in the Warriors’ last three games. The former Prairie Hockey Academy standout now has 22 goals on the season and is tied for seventh in the WHL in that category.
Mateychuk is also moving up the defenceman scoring standings, with his three assists giving him 39 points on the season and jumping to third in scoring among rearguards.
Ungar was once again stellar in goal and finished with 37 saves, while Ratzlaff stopped 10 shots in 30:01 and Milic all 17 shots he faced the rest of the game.
The Warriors are back in action on Tuesday night when they travel to Edmonton to face the Oil Kings. Puck drop is 8 p.m. Moose Jaw time.
