It was a bit of the good and a bit of the bad for the Moose Jaw WINMAR Warriors in Sask Male AAA Hockey League action during the Thanksgiving weekend.
The Warriors opened their two-game set with the Warrman Wildcats with a 5-3 victory on Sunday before dropping a 3-0 decision in the rematch Monday.
As a result, the Warriors are 3-3 on the campaign and sit in a five-team logjam for third place in the 12-team league, with the top four teams at the beginning of November likely in consideration for the prestigious Circle K Cup in Calgary during the Christmas holidays.
The weekend's first game ended up being a good one for Moose Jaw Minor Hockey product Noah Thul, as the Warriors rookie picked up his first SMAAAHL goal and capped his night with two points.
It wasn’t the greatest of starts for Moose Jaw in the contest, as Dylan Duzan scored the lone goal for the Warriors in the opening frame but also saw Beckett Hamilton and Hudson Brehaut reply for the Wildcats, with the latter’s goal coming with 33 seconds to play in the period.
The second was all Warriors, though, beginning with Thul scoring shorthanded 3:29 into the proceedings. Bryce Boughen gave Moose Jaw their first lead of the game at 8:03 and Caleb Potter extended the edge to a pair of goals with 4:10 to play.
Connor Bear got one back for Warman in the third period, but Cooper Buhay would finish things off with Moose Jaw’s fifth goal with three seconds to play.
Luke McKechnie picked up the win in goal, stopping 29 shots, while Moose Jaw had 31 shots on the Wildcats’ Riley Deck.
There wasn’t a whole lot of good to report out of Monday’s rematch other than the performance of goaltender Ryan Bain, who made a handful of big saves to keep things close while the offence tried to break through.
Bain ended up making 25 stops in the losing effort.
Ty Dauvin scored for Warman in the first period before Mason Obrigewitch increased the lead to 2-0 early in the third. Hamilton finished things off with an empty netter with 54 seconds to play.
Moose Jaw had 27 shots on Warman’s Riley Deck.
The WINMAR Warriors are back in action on Friday night when they travel to Tisdale for the for the first of two weekend games against the Trojans. Next home action is Wednesday, Oct. 25 when they host the Swift Current Legionnaires. Game time is 7 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
