Warriors score often and early on way to win over Regina

Any time you’re facing an archrival, the goal is always to get off to as quick a start as possible -- the more momentum you have on your side in an emotional game, the better.

For the Moose Jaw Warriors on Military Appreciation Night against the Regina Pats, they did that and then some.

The Warriors scored four goals in the first period, outshot the Pats 20-6 in the process and would go on to a 5-2 victory in Western Hockey League action at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.

The offensive output matched the Warriors' highest goal total this season, going back to their 5-4 win over the Pats in Regina, and came after the club had seen plenty of opportunities in previous games but had little reward.

“It’s really good for our team’s confidence,” said Warriors defenceman Cole Jordan, who had two goals on the night and was named the game’s first star. “We’ve been creating the chances, but the pucks haven’t been going in the net for us. So it was nice to get five tonight and put up a ton of shots.”

Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary felt that if not for the play of Regina goaltender Drew Sim -- who ended up facing 47 shots on the night -- things could have been far more lopsided.

“We had lots of chances he had to make big saves on,” O’Leary said. “I think we earned our chances tonight, we were on the right side of pucks and to get some results from all the different lines like we did is important. Doing it the right way is important for us, too.”

That "way" being the use of hard work and effort to create opportunities before using their skill to finish things off. That’s how things went for the Warriors right from the puck drop on Thursday night, and to see his charges rewarded for their efforts was most certainly a positive.

“I think the start set the tone and allowed us to get to our game and feel good about it,” O’Leary said. “Any time you start the game and play the right way, you want something to happen to reassure what you’re doing is working and our guys came ready to play tonight. They showed it, they got rewarded early and just kept going.”

Jordan got things moving along 5:58 into the game, with his innocent-looking point shot redirecting in front and past Pats goaltender Drew Sim. Jordan added his second of the game 5:43 into the third, taking a cross-zone backdoor feed from Denton Mateychuk and hammering a shot home.

The goals were Jordan’s first two of the season. 

“It’s always nice to get on the scoresheet, but I try to take pride in the D zone first and when the opportunity comes I try and contribute,” Jordan said. “I have to give credit to my teammates for both goals, Dents made a great pass to me for the second one and Hoekstra on the first one, too. It was good to get the goals, but it was a team effort.”

Brayden Yager scored on the power play to give the Warriors a 2-0 lead before the game was 10 minutes old before Stanislav Svozil got one back for Regina just over a minute later.

The Warriors kept the pressure on, though, with Mateychuk and Tate Schofer both scoring before the first period was over to give the Warriors their three-goal lead.

Connor Bedard got one back for Regina with 7:13 gone in the second period, but that would mark the end of any comeback attempts on the night.

Unger capped his night with 23 saves to earn the win.

The Warriors improved to 6-4-0-0 and sit a point back of 6-5-0-1 Regina for fourth place in the Eastern Conference.

The two teams are right back at it on Sunday night when they rematch in Regina. Game time is 4 p.m.