The Moose Jaw Warriors had to battle tooth and nail from the opening face-off on Saturday night against the Red Deer Rebels, but in the end were able to come away with a 5-4 victory in Western Hockey League action.
The contest opened a three-games-in-four nights Alberta road swing for the local crew and saw the Warriors improve to 19-16-3-1 on the season, four points back of Saskatoon for fourth place and two up on sixth-place Brandon.
The Rebels fell to 24-11-2-1 and remain third in the Eastern Conference.
Red Deer opened scoring 4:10 into the game and it was a nice one, as Arshdeep Bains feathered a pass through traffic from the far boards to Ben King, who toe-dragged his way around a defenceman and put a shot high blocker side on Jackson Unger.
It didn’t take long for the Warriors to respond. Only 57 seconds later and on the power play, Jagger Firkus picked up a rebound at the side of the net, circled around behind and hit Denton Mateychuk with a pass out front, with the 17-year-old defenceman making no mistake on his quick shot.
A little over a minute after that goal, the Rebels’ Jace Isley pounced on a defensive zone turnover and got off a quick shot that went top shelf, putting Red Deer ahead 2-1.
The Warriors scored their second power play goal in as many attempts at 9:25 of the first, with Daemon Hunt doing the honours with a hard shot from the slot past Rebels starter Connor Ungar.
Moose Jaw had a handful of scoring chances in the early part of the second period, and Firkus finally gave his crew the lead four minutes in. The Central Scouting-ranked forward took a feed from Nathan Pilling on a three-on-two break before getting off a shot from the top of the slot for his team-leading 24th goal of the season..
That lead didn’t last long, either. King scored his second of the game on a feed from behind the net from Bains three minutes later, tying the game 3-3.
That’s where things stood with three minutes gone in the third, when Cordel Larson tipped the rebound off a Hunt wrap-around attempt five-hole on Ungar.
Ryder Korczak scored an empty net goal with 1:32 remaining to put the Warriors up by a pair, and it would prove to be significant, as Red Deer’s Liam Keeler closed out scoring with 22 seconds to play during a stint of four-on-four action..
Unger finished the game with 24 saves for the Warriors, while Moose Jaw fired 21 at Red Deer’s Ungar.
Hunt and Mateychuk had two assists each.
The Warriors are back in action on Sunday when they take on the Calgary Hitmen, with a 5 p.m. start time. They wrap up the swing Tuesday when they visit the Edmonton Oil Kings.
