The Moose Jaw Winmar Warriors couldn’t have asked for a better start to their Saskatchewan Male AAA Hockey League regular season.
The key now will be to keep the progression they’ve already seen moving in a positive direction and string together plenty of wins in the early going of the 2022-23 campaign.
The Warriors kicked off their campaign with a hard-fought 4-3 victory over the Battlefords Stars in their home opener on Friday night before rolling to an 8-4 win in the rematch Saturday afternoon, giving themselves a quick 2-0 record to open the season.
“We’re happy with the start obviously,” said Warriors head coach Trevor Weisgerber. “Last night I thought we played very well as a group and today was a bit sloppy, but that’s a quick turnaround and that’s a little bit to be expected… We definitely have some stuff to work on, but all in all, we came out with four points and I’m just happy with the work ethic and the compete level. That’s a good sign, so we’ll keep working on the other stuff.”
Things were plenty interesting in the first game of the weekend, as Dylan Duzan scored the game-winning goal 3:47 into the third period and the Warriors held off a late charge by Battlefords to secure the win.
Caleb Potter and Jake Briltz gave Moose Jaw a 2-1 lead out of the first period and Rhett Perrin scored their lone goal in the second for a 3-2 edge.
Ryan Bain made 24 saves in taking the win.
There were no such dramatics on Saturday afternoon, as the Warriors took a 3-0 lead out of the first period and never looked back, tacking on three goals in the second and a pair in the third for their comfortable win.
Team captain Ryder Knutson had two goals and an assist, while Liam Fitzpatrick had a goal and two helpers to go along with single markers from Bryce Boughen, Grady Hoffman, Connor Miller and Rhett Perrin.
Potter added three assists to sit tied with Fitzpatrick for the SMAAAHL scoring lead with a goal and five points, albeit before the majority of the league had played their second game.
Ryan Hicks had 25 saves in the victory.
Weisgerber pointed to how quickly the team has picked up on certain aspects of the game as a key to their weekend success.
“I think a lot of it comes down to progressing and working in the right direction,” he said. “You see a lot of positives, which is good, and for this early in the year with quite a few young guys as well, it’s good to see them doing things properly. We talk about habits all the time and it’s good to see progress already in that direction.”
One thing that’s for certain is they’ll need much more of the same if they’re to reach an early season goal --- a spot in the top four in the league standings at the end of November and a berth in the prestigious Mac’s AAA World Invitational Hockey Tournament.
“We have a pretty favourable schedule, for the first month and a bit the majority of our games are at home,” Weisgerber said. “So we want to start out well and I think it’s in the back of everyone’s mind that we want to qualify for the Mac’s and you need a good start if that’s the case. Now we’ll have a good week of practices so we can work on some stuff and get back at it next weekend.”
The Winmar Warriors are back in action on Saturday, Oct. 1 against the Tisdale Trojans, with puck drop at 7 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
