There are no two ways about it -- the Moose Jaw Warriors are on a heck of a roll at the moment, and if a team isn’t at the top of their game a lopsided result could be in the cards.
Friday night offered the latest example in that direction, as the Warriors scored four first-period goals against the Swift Current Broncos and never looked back on their way to a 7-0 victory in Western Hockey League action at Mosaic Place.
The win gives Moose Jaw points in 14 of their last 15 games, including wins in 13 of those contests and saw something happen that was little more than a fantasy two months ago. The Warriors moved within a single point of the Red Deer Rebels for third place in the Eastern Conference with a 29-17-3-2 record. The Rebels still hold a game in hand, though, and while Moose Jaw is now also within four points of Winnipeg, the Ice have seven games in hand, most of those at home.
That the Warriors have made up so much ground is no surprise given their play of late, something that was on full display against the Broncos.
“Yeah, everybody played really well,” said Warriors captain Daemon Hunt, who finished the game with two goals and five points. “For myself, everything was just clicking and I was getting some bounces too, but as a five-man unit, we played really well. Then Tetty (goaltender Carl Tetachuk) made some great saves early on and throughout the game, too. I'm really proud of the guys for that effort out there.”
Atley Calvert got the Warriors on the board first 5:24 into the game, with his goal coming seconds after a glorious scoring opportunity by Swift Current at the other end of the ice. Immediately after the Broncos’ scoring chance, the Warriors went down on a three-on-two rush, with Calvert taking a feed from Jagger Firkus and using a defenceman screen to get off a shot high glove side that eluded Isaac Poulter.
Robert Baco made it 2-0 Moose Jaw with 7:25 to play in the first, and it was a matter of right spot, right time -- Eric Alarie outduelled a Broncos defender behind the net and hit Baco with a blind backhand pass to the side of the net. Baco simply lifted the puck top corner glove side for his 10th goal of the season.
Two minutes after that goal, it was 3-0 Moose Jaw, with Hunt doing the honours with his league-leading 15th goal among defencemen. Firkus fired a pass from behind the net out to the point, Hunt got off a shot along the ice that found its way through traffic and home.
The carnage continued with 2:44 remaining. Playing four-on-four, Hunt called for the pass at the right face-off dot from Ryder Korczak and got off a hard one-timer that Poulter made the stop on, but the rebound went right out front to Alarie, who put a shot into the open net.
Just like that, 4-0 Warriors before the first period was out.
Thing is, it could have been even more lopsided as the second period went on if not for Poulter. The overage netminder made a handful of impressive saves as the frame progressed, including more than one stop on Warriors in all alone close. Poulter ended up with 23 saves in the period and faced 56 shots overall.
His heroics could only last so long, though, and Calvert finally broke through on the power play with 2:25 left in the period, finishing off a flurry of scoring chances when the puck found him alone in front and with nothing but net to shoot at.
Hunt increased the Warriors’ lead to six with his second goal and fifth point of the game 6:49 into the third before Denton Mateychuk scored on a scramble in front of the net with 2:03 remaining in the game to close out scoring.
Ironically, Tetachuk ended up with a relatively calm night given his recent run of insanely good performances, making 25 saves to earn his second shutout of the season.
“It was another one of those games where the boys played great in front of me, I could play everything and see everything, the defence played solid,” said Tetachuk, who picked up his 23rd win of the season, third-most among WHL goaltenders.
“I think my confidence and the team's confidence is just being boosted higher and higher every game and I think we can just use that for the playoffs. It's been really good so far and now we just want to keep it going.”
Having things go like they did Friday night will certainly play a part in that -- and especially if the team continues to play as well as they have in front of Tetachuk.
“Good offence starts with good defence and if you look at our D a lot of guys are drafted to NHL teams,’ Hunt said. “When we have confidence in our goalie, the whole team has confidence and I think that’s a big thing right now. We defended hard and didn’t give up many chances and everything just rolled from there.”
Calvert added two assists to finish with a four-point night while Jagger Firkus and Ryder Korczak added another two helpers to their team-leading totals.
The Warriors are back in action Sunday when they travel to Saskatoon to face the Blades. Next home action is Friday, Mar. 4 against the Prince Albert Raiders.
