It might not have been a perfect weekend like they were hoping for, but things went pretty well for the Moose Jaw WINMAR Warriors in Sask Male AAA Hockey League action just the same.
Any time you take three of four points off a team you’re chasing in the standing, it’s a good weekend indeed.
The Warriors dropped a 4-3 decision in overtime to the Warman Wildcats on Friday night but had no such difficulties on Saturday afternoon, rolling to a 5-2 victory at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
As a result, Moose Jaw currently has 13-10-1-0 record to sit in fifth place in the league standings, a single point behind third-place Warman and Regina and five back of first-place Prince Albert and Swift Current.
Given that Warman has been one of the top teams in the league since the start of the campaign, the success was certainly heartening for a crew that continues to claw their way up the standings.
“Tough teams are when you have to be your best, you have to be ready to go from the start and that’s how it was in both games for us this weekend,” said Warriors captain Dylan Duzan. “We just have to keep doing our jobs all the time, show up at the rink ready to work. Then it’s buying into what (head coach) Trevor (Weisgerber) has to say and playing the best we can and we’ll get the results we want.”
The Warriors could have had a four-point weekend if not for a tough ending Friday.
With the game tied 2-2, Duzan scored a shorthanded goal with 4:38 to play in regulation and the Warriors looked to hold on for the win, only for Jack Janzen to tie the game with 1:47 remaining.
Carsen Adair then scored with 12 seconds left in overtime to give Warman the win.
Noah Thul scored the lone goal in the first period to give the Warriros the lead after one, and Keaton Lesperance scored 1:14 into the second to make it a 2-0 game.
Warman’s Beckett Hamilton and Jack Lavallee got both those goals back before the second was out, though, setting up the third-period dramatics.
Ryan Bain had 35 saves for Moose Jaw, while the Warriors fired 36 shots at Corben Schnurr.
The rematch less than 24 hours later was far different, beginning with Kanyan Unger and Gage Nagel scoring first period goals for Moose Jaw as they took a 2-0 lead.
“It was good right from the start,” said Duzan, who scored another shorthanded goal in the second period to give Moose Jaw a 3-1 lead. “The boys were ready to go and we took it to them early and just kept the foot down and stood on them all night. So it was a good win.”
Dylan Danyluk scored for Warman on the power play midway through the third, but Jake Britlz got that back for the Warriors with 2:48 remaining and Cooper Buhay finished things off with an empty netter.
Duzan, Nagel and Britlz all had two points in the win.
Bain stopped 35 shots to pick up the victory, with Moose Jaw firing 34 shots at the Wildcats’ Riley Deck.
Two games, two different results, but two positive results just the same.
“It was just bearing down on our chances since we were all over them yesterday as well,” Duzan said. “We just couldn’t find a way to extend that lead where today we took it to them, stayed all over them and beared down on our chances in this game.”
Liam Bursaw had Warmans’ other goal.
The WINMAR Warriors are back in action on Thursday, Dec. 14 when the Notre Dame Hounds are in town. Game time is 7 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
