Throughout the second half of the season, the Moose Jaw Warriors have had their share of games where it looked like just about everything that could go right did go right, and it’s made for many a positive evening for the local Western Hockey League club.
On Friday night against the Calgary Hitmen, it was a bit more of a grindfest, the kind of game where whoever found their stride at the right time was going to find the win column.
And sure enough, the Warriors were that team.
Jagger Firkus and Calder Anderson scored the game-winning and insurance markers in the final period and Moose Jaw would go on to a 5-2 win at Mosaic Place.
“Obviously we had to dig in the last couple of periods, I think we didn't come out the best in the first but especially in the third we played our game.” said Firkus, who finished the game with two points and was named the first star. “We just had to start getting pucks on net, they were getting there and we got a few bounces, which was really good to see.”
The Warriors improved to 32-19-3-2 on the campaign and remained a point up on Saskatoon for fourth place, six back of Red Deer for third.
Calgary opened scoring at 8:42 of the first, and it was the product of winning a pair of races. Maxim Muranov won the first, beating a Warriors defender and picking up a loose puck behind the Moose Jaw net. Blake Allan won the second, getting into the slot first for the ensuing pass and beating Carl Tetachuk five-hole with the ensuing shot.
Nathan Pilling got that one back for Moose Jaw with 5:25 to play in the period, stationing himself in front of the Calgary net and tipping a Denton Mateychuk point shot over Calgary’s Ethan Buenaventura.
The Warriors kept up the pressure from there and Brayden Yager was rewarded two minutes after Pilling’s goal, with a shot from in close by Firkus rebounding right to the 16-year-old rookie in the slot, and he’d make no mistake with a laser top shelf glove side.
There things stood until 3:48 remained in the second period when Calgary defenceman Carter Yakemchuk took a feed at the Calgary blueline from Buenaventura and went end to end, with Tetachuk making an outstanding pad stop on the first shot, only to have Yakemchuk flip the rebound into the net.
Firkus restored the Warriors’ lead just over five minutes into the third period, and it was a slick one. Moose Jaw’s leading scorer carried the puck into the Calgary zone, broke across the face-off circles and put a shot along the ice through a screen to give the Warriors a 3-2 lead.
Firkus now has 31 goals and 70 points in 56 games, good enough for the team lead and ninth in WHL scoring. Just as important, he continues to hold the goal-scoring lead among players eligible for the 2022 NHL Draft, the continuation of a stellar season for the Irma, Alta. product.
“I'm getting my bounces and I'm earning my bounces because I'm going hard to the net and going hard in the corners,” Firkus said. “That's something that I wanted to focus on in the second half so I'm really happy to see the results.”
Eric Alarie looked to give the Warriors a two-goal lead with 4:10 remaining in the game when Ryder Korczak hit him with a perfect pass into the slot and a wide-open net to shoot at, but Buenaventura dove back with his stick and somehow got nothing but puck to keep it a one-goal game.
A little over a minute after that, Calder Anderson got his stick on a chance the Hitmen netminder couldn’t stop, as he poked the puck through a slew of traffic in front with 3:56 remaining, giving Moose Jaw their 4-2 edge.
Riley Niven added an empty netter with 59 seconds remaining to close out scoring.
Tetachuk finished the game with 22 saves to earn his 25th win of the season, the Warriors had 37 shots on Buenaventura.
The key now will be to keep things going against Lethbridge when the Hurricanes visit Mosaic Place on Saturday. Puck drop is 7 p.m.
“I think we’re just a really tight team right now,” Firkus said. “We always stick together and don’t get down on one player if they make a mistake, we’re always trying to stay up on the bench and keeping positive. This is a really fun team to be around, it’s just awesome and we’re going to do what we can to keep it going.”
