It was one of those nights for the Moose Jaw Warriors, and one they’ll most definitely be looking to put in the rearview mirror.
The Brandon Wheat Kings scored four goals in 1:30 early in the second period, six in the frame overall, and would go on to an 11-2 victory in Western Hockey League action at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
It was a stunning result for the home side, especially since it came on the heels of a win over one of the CHL’s top teams in the Winnipeg Ice earlier in the week.
“I think they pushed and then we backed off totally,” said Warriors captain Denton Mateychuk. “We played scared, we didn’t forecheck, we didn’t track back, there were loose gaps, it was everything. Everything that went wrong was on us pretty much and we just have to be better, it’s totally unacceptable.”
Mateychuk felt the win over the Ice might have played into how the Warriors showed on Friday, especially since they were taking on a team fighting for a playoff spot.
“We might have been a bit high off of that win, coming into a game against a team that’s lower than us in the standings,” he said. “Maybe that gets in your head, but you have to treat every game the same and tonight I don’t think we did.”
The loss was the most lopsided at home since the 2008-09 season when the Saskatoon Blades took an 11-1 win out of the Moose Jaw Civic Centre on Sunday, Jan. 25, scoring 10 straight goals in the process.
Thing is, after the first 1:09 of Friday’s game, it looked like the shoe was going to be on the other foot between the two teams.
Ryder Korczak opened scoring only 39 seconds into the proceedings, finishing off a two-on-one break with Eric Alarie by beating Wheat Kings goaltender Nicholas Jones with a shot low blocker side.
Only 30 seconds later it was 2-0 Moose Jaw, this time with Harper Lolacher getting the job done by finding a rebound off a Brayden Yager shot in close and putting a shot home.
A too-many-men penalty minutes later gave Brandon a chance to get right back into it, though, and they’d capitalize as Nate Danielson finished off a two-on-one break with Nolan Ritchie at the 4:12 mark.
The Warriors had a couple of chances to extend their lead on outstanding scoring chances as the period progressed but would be stymied by Jones, and Brandon would take advantage of their goaltender’s heroics.
Zakhar Polshakov tied the game with 4:19 remaining in the period, but it was a great backhand pass out of the corner by Rylan Roersma that set up Polshakov all alone in the slot. He’d have all day to put a shot top corner glove side on Jackson Unger and the teams would go into the break in a 2-2 draw.
And then came the carnage.
Brandon received back-to-back power plays in the first three minutes of the second period and Luke Shipley would capitalize for the Wheat Kings 2:50 into the frame.
Mason Ward then made it a 4-2 Brandon lead 50 seconds later on a dump-in on net hat eluded Unger, bringing his night to an end with four goals allowed on 21 shots.
Things didn’t get any better with Connor Ungar in net, as Brandon’s Roersma and Brett Hyland scored on their next two rushes down the ice, with the goals coming 15 seconds apart.
The four goals in 1:30 isn’t a WHL single-game record, but it wasn’t far off -- 52 seconds stands as the mark to beat, with the Saskatoon Blades the latest team to pull off the feat against the Prince Albert Raiders back in 1982. Former Warriors assistant coach Lane Lambert had one of the goals for Saskatoon in that outbreak.
Just over three minutes after that marker, it was 7-2 Brandon thanks to a goal by Roger McQueen, and the Wheat Kings had five goals in the first 7:37 of the period.
Brandon wasn’t done yet, as former Warrior Calder Anderson scored with 4:11 remaining in the second for their eighth-straight goal.
All told, Brandon would outshoot Moose Jaw 20-6 in the period.
Ritchie and Evan Groening scored just over two minutes apart midway through the third to make it a double-digit goal night for Brandon, and Anthony Wilson finished things off with their 11th goal with 9:30 to play.
The Wheat Kings ended up outshooting the Warriors 44-23 on the night.
Moose Jaw fell to 21-13-0-0 with the loss, but thanks to a 4-3 Swift Current win over Lethbridge, remain in fourth place in the Eastern Conference with a single-point lead over the Hurricanes. Winnipeg snapped Saskatoon’s 10-game winning streak with a 2-0 win, meaning the Warriors remain eight points back of the Blades for third place.
Next action for Moose Jaw is Saturday night when they’ll look for a rebound against the Wheat Kings in Brandon, with Mateychuk expecting a vastly improved performance.
“Everyone is going to go home and think about their game and come back tomorrow and be ready to play,” he said matter-of-factly. “We have to use this as motivation, they just embarrassed us on our home rink and we have to go there and give it to them and play a lot better than we did tonight.”
