Throughout their run of success as of late, the Moose Jaw Warriors have had more than their share of pretty goals.
Slick passing plays, brilliant individual efforts and being in the right place at the right time has led to the Warriors averaging close to five goals a game since the start of their 17 wins in their last 19 games.
On Thursday night against the Brandon Wheat Kings, it was time to get gritty.
The Warriors scrapped and clawed for most of their goals at the Moose Jaw Events Centre, and would go on to a 4-1 victory for their sixth straight win.
Moose Jaw improved to 34-16-0-2 and have once again moved two points ahead of Medicine Hat into second place in the Eastern Conference, only they now hold a game in hand.
The Warriors opened scoring with five minutes to play in the first period, and when you’re going like Jagger Firkus is going at the moment, you’re going to score ones like he did. The Seattle Kraken prospect broke into the Brandon zone, worked his way through the defence and found the puck on the other side before missing a backhand on net that simply slid through Carson Bjarnason’s legs and in.
The goal was Firkus’ 41st goal of the season and extended his team-record point streak to 25 games.
Brandon got that one back 38 seconds later when a Nolan Flamand point shot redirected and dropped at the side of the net for a wide-open Jayden Wiens, and he’d lift the puck into the goal to tie the game at one.
There things stood until the second period, when the Warriors started to find their groove.
Lynden Lakovic got things started 2:30 into the period, potting a rebound off an Aiden Ziprick point shot, and Atley Calvert then made it 3-1 only 1:04 later, batting a Brayden Yager rebound out of the air and past Bjarnasson.
“In the first period, I thought our 200-foot game wasn’t the greatest, so we talked in in the intermission about being better in our own zone since we were cheating the game a little bit,” said Lakovic, who had a good half-dozen chances to score on the night but was just a bit snakebit. “We fixed that up in the second and third and it showed, so just cleaning that stuff up made the difference.”
Getting the two goals back-to-back early in the second was naturally huge for the team’s confidence, especially knowing that once they have a lead as of late, it’s probably going to stay that way.
“When a game is back and forth like that and you get two quick ones, it really helps swing the momentum,” Lakovic said. “I thought we certainly did that, we played some pretty good hockey to start the second period and it continued through the rest of the game.”
The hits kept coming at the 9:21 mark, this time with Pavel McKenzie finding the puck in a crowd in front and jamming home a shot for the three-goal lead.
Things settled into a back-and-forth affair from there until the final minutes of the third period. Caleb Hadland made it a two-goal game with 1:53 remaining and Brandon started to press with Bjarnason pulled for the extra attacker, with Warriors goltender Jackson Unger making a huge pad save with just over a minute to play to preserve the lead.
Brandon wouldn’t get another good chance, though, and the Warriors had their win.
The Warriors are back in action on Saturday night, with early reports indicating brisk ticket sales for their annual Nickelodeon Night featuring special Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles jerseys. Game time is 7 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
