The Moose Jaw Warriors are only going to have one home game during a 31-day stretch.
They certainly made their homecoming count.
Friday, the Warriors were strong in all facets of their game as they beat the Medicine Hat Tigers 6-1 at Mosaic Place.
"We knew the fans were looking forward to having us and we gave them a show tonight," said Warriors rookie Brayden Tracey. "We were happy to get a win at home too. Our record is 18-3-2 on the road. That's obviously huge, but we want home-ice advantage for the playoffs so we have to start winning some more at home here."
Tracey scored a natural hat trick to stake the Warriors to a 3-0 lead and send them on their way to their fourth straight win. Saturday, the Warriors (28-11-6-2) saw their eight-game point streak snapped with a tight 4-3 loss to the Prince Albert Raiders.
They sit four points behind the Saskatoon Blades who are second in the East Division standings. The Warriors have three games in hand on Saskatoon.
"The coaches were on me all week about shooting the puck a little bit more. They said I have a great shot and I kept passing my opportunities away. I figured tonight I would shoot a little more and it worked out," said Tracey who had a four-point night Friday.
The Warriors killed off both Medicine Hat power plays and six Raiders power plays Saturday. They haven't allowed a power play goal in nine straight contests. Moose Jaw has killed 26 straight opposition power plays and haven't allowed power-play goal in the last 566 minutes and 31 seconds since Baron Thompson's game-winner for Brandon on Jan. 12.
"We've actually been working on (our penalty kill) pretty hard. In practice we've been working on it a ton and it's nice to see the results," said Warriors goalie Adam Evanoff who made 33 saves against the Tigers, including some vital stops when the result was still hanging in the balance. "The penalty kill is a big thing and at the start of the year we weren't very good at it and now we're one of the best.
"It's just the mentality, I think... before maybe we were trying to do too much -- dust it off before we ice it -- but now it's just get it down and get it out."
Keenan Taphorn scored a power play goal and Kjell Kjemhus scored his first goal of the season to put the Warriors ahead 5-0 and chase Tigers starting goalie Jordan Hollett after he stopped 22 of the 27 shots he faced.
Ryan Chyzowski spoiled Evanoff's shutout, before Justin Almeida kept his goal-streak alive to round out the scoring.
In Prince Albert, the team’s traded goals all night, but Brett Leason’s 32nd of the season was the winner with 2:25 left in the third period.
Almeida scored his 20th goal of the season to extend his goal streak to five games with 4:15 left in the third period. Almeida was named the WHL's player of the week for the second straight week on Monday.
Josh Brook and Brayden Tracey also scored for the Warriors who got all three of their goals on the power play, capitalizing on three of their five chances. Jett Woo finished with three assists.
Former Moose Jaw General Cole Fonstad opening the scoring for the Raiders who never trailed and Sean Montgomery and Kaiden Guhle also scored for the Raiders.
Brodan Salmond made 31 saves in the loss and Ian Scott made 28 saves for Prince Albert.
Warriors defenceman Daemon Hunt returned to the lineup this weekend after missing eight straight games.
The Warriors donned special Don Cherry suit jerseys as part of the WHL Suits up with Don Cherry to Promote Organ Donation campaign. The jerseys featured the players nicknames on the back and were auctioned off during the game to support the Kidney Foundation of Canada.
