The Moose Jaw Warriors have taken pride in how they’ve started games all season.
How they came out against the Prince Albert Raiders on Friday night at Mosaic Place was arguably their best opening yet.
The Warriors scored twice in the first two minutes of the game and led 3-0 before the contest was 12 minutes old before going on to take a 3-1 victory in Western Hockey League action.
And it all started with their power play.
The Raiders’ Carson Latimer took a double minor for high sticking only 29 seconds into the game and the Warriors would make Prince Albert pay for both penalties.
Max Wanner scored only 14 seconds into the first minor and 1:12 after that goal, Jagger Firkus finished off a rush with a quick shot from the bottom of the left faceoff circle top shelf blocker side.
“You always want to start well against the team like P.A., you can shut them down early and take that hope away from them,” said Wanner, whose game-opening marker was his fourth of the season. “Sometimes the weaker teams won't battle as hard at near the end of the game so you just want to put yourself in a really good situation.”
The Warriors went with three defencemen on their opening man advantage, leading to Wanner pinching in on the wing and putting the first shot of the game home.
“We move the puck well on our power play and get a lot of shots and one of mine went in right away, so it was a really good start,” Wanner said.
Daemon Hunt made it 3-0 at 11:42 of the first, and it was as perfect a give-and-go as there could be, with Hunt passing off to Jagger Firkus, going to the net, and tipping home Firkus’ bullet-like return pass.
Interestingly enough, that would cap scoring for the home team and set the stage for goaltender Carl Tetachuk to show his stuff.
The overage netminder’s shutout bid was finally snapped with 6:39 remaining in the game when Reece Vitelli got off a shot from in close that found the top corner glove side..
That the goal was the only one Prince Albert scored wasn’t for a lack of chances, as Tetachuk stopped a pair of breakaways to go along with a handful of saves on wide-open scoring opportunities.
It was yet another solid performance and one that saw Tetachuk make 23 saves on the night.
Wanner was direct and to the point when asked about his netminder’s performance.
“He’s the man,” the Edmonton Oilers draft pick said with a huge grin.
The victory came on the heels of the Warriors’ first loss in eight games, a 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Wednesday. Getting back on track quickly was one of the main goals for the local squad -- as is starting another lengthy winning streak.
“Any time you go on a long run, it takes a little bit of wind out of your sails when you lose one, but I feel like good teams find a way to bounce back and that's what we did here,” Wanner said. “Obviously we're playing well right now and it was good to bounce back after that start against Lethbridge. Hopefully, we can keep it going against the Hittmen coming up.”
The Warriors are now 26-17-3-1 on the season and are the hottest team in the Eastern Conference with a 9-1-0-0 mark over their last 10 games. They’re now five points back of the third-place Red Deer Rebels and four up on the Saskatoon Blades.
Moose Jaw returns to action Saturday night when they host the aforementioned Calgary Hitmen. Game time is 7 p.m. at Mosaic Place.
