The Moose Jaw Warriors just keep finding ways to knock off teams ahead of them in the standings, and as a result they now find themselves on the verge of moving up the Eastern Conference rankings.
The Warriors battled to a 3-1 victory over the Saskatoon Blades in Western Hockey League action on Tuesday night at the Moose Jaw Events Centre, improving to 27-14-0-2 on the season and closing within a single point of Saskatoon for third place in the Conference. Saskatoon continues to carry four games in hand.
“I thought it was a good team game, we came out like a cannon,” said Warriors forward Josh Hoekstra, who scored the game-winning goal midway through the second period. “We know Saskatoon is a deep, highly skilled team that’s hard to play against and we just stuck to the plan and it worked out for us.”
The Warriors opened scoring 7:20 into the proceedings, and it was another slick passing play that got things done. Atley Calvert started things off by getting the puck down low to Ryder Korczak in the left corner, and Korczak would find a wide-open Eric Alarie, who tipped the puck home five-hole for the 1-0 lead.
The goal extended point-scoring streaks for all three players.
Alarie now has four goals in the Warriors’ last three games and points in five of six; Calvert’s assist ran his streak to four games, with points in 11 of his last 12 and Korczak also has points in four straight and 11 of his last 12 games. In fact, the 20-year-old sniper has only been held off the sheet twice in the 24 games he’s played since returning to Moose Jaw, with 17 goals and 37 points in that span.
That was it for scoring until the midway mark of the second period, with Hoekstra’s harmless-looking point shot finding a way through traffic and past a screened Austin Elliot in the Blades net.
“I’ll take that for sure,” said Hoekstra, who scored his sixth of the season. “It was a nice entry by Rysavy and a nice pass by Dowhaniuk and then it was just shoot it on net. Rysavy was in front and it went through, and it feels good to get that one.”
Saskatoon received the first power play of the game a couple of minutes later, and the Blades would finish off some solid puck movement in the zone with their first goal. Egor Sidorov put a one-timer home at 12:27, once again making it a one-goal game.
All told, the Warriors would end up holding Saskatoon to only 13 shots through the first two periods, a side-effect of a solid neutral zone game that stifled the Blades’ potent attack.
“We just had to make sure we were getting back,” Hoekstra said. “They’re a fast transition team, they’ll beat us on the rush and that’s where they get their chances so we we had to make sure we tracked through the middle.”
Warriors goaltender Connor Ungar ended up facing only 21 shots in total, a far cry from the usual 40-plus he’s stopped most nights. It was the continuation of a stellar season for the overage netminder, who is now third in the WHL in save percentage at .925 and second in total wins at 22, only one back of Kamloops and former AAA Warriors goaltender Dylan Ernst.
“I’m sure he’s thankful for that,” Hoekstra said of his netminder’s less-busy night. “He’s been facing a lot of shots and doing a great job, and it’s nice to give him a bit of a break for sure.”
The Blades had a golden chance to tie the game when Jagger Firkus was hit with a slashing penalty with 1:33 to play, but Sidorov broke his stick trying to keep the puck in the zone and on the resulting turnover Brayden Yager would finish things off with an empty-netter with 1:17 to play. Korczak picked up his second assist of the game on the play.
The Warriors will now head into Saskatoon on Wednesday night with a chance to take over third place once and for all.
“It feels good to start catching them. They’re a good team and they’re ahead of us, but we want to climb the standings for sure heading into the end of the season and going into the playoffs,” Hoekstra said.
