Warriors win back-and-forth battle with Spokane Tribe take three of four points on weekend after OT loss in Brandon

By the look of things, the Moose Jaw Warriors are proving to be an exceptionally tough team out for their WHL opponents, through the early part of the 2018-19 campaign.

Case in point, their two contests this past weekend – a 5-4 overtime loss in Brandon on Oct. 12 and a 4-3 win over Spokane at Mosaic Place on Oct. 13 -- with the win, seeing the Warriors improve to 4-2-2 on the season. The victory over the Chiefs was almost prototypical of how the Warriors expect to play this season, as their grind-it-out effort might not have included any end-toend rushes or spectacular passing plays, but opportunistic shots, deflections and won battles in-close were enough to get the job done.

“It was a character win, a character weekend; we got three points and points in six straight games, so we’re kind of hanging in there and finding our way,” said Warriors head coach Tim Hunter.

“We’d have liked to have been better on the power play, we gave up a couple of goals, but it was a gritty effort and were happy with the result.”

Daemon Hunt scored twice and added an assist, with Tate Popple and Brayden Tracey also scored for the Warriors. Ty Smith had a goal and an assist for Spokane; Carter Chorney and Riley Woods had their other markers.

The win was all the more impressive given how the Tribe were shorthanded offensively with forwards Tyler Smithies and Ryan Peckford both out of the line-up. “We had to put some defencemen up front and at the end of the day it helps them get some development time,” Hunter said. “It’s a next-man-up kind of philosophy and I thought everyone dug in and (goaltender Brodan) Salmond played well when we needed some stops and we got some timely scoring.”

Salmond got the win in net with 20 stops, many of them of the amazing variety, including an outstanding glove save in-close in the game’s waning moments. Dawson Weatherhill made 16 saves for the Chiefs.

One night earlier, Tristan Langan had two goals and four points as the Warriors put together an impressive comefrom-behind effort – scoring the go-ahead goal with 3:49 remaining – only for Luka Burzan to tie the game for Brandon with 1:27 remaining and Connor Gutenberg to win the game 25 seconds into overtime.

Josh Brook and Jett Woo also scored for the Warriors; Justin Almeida had four assists.

Salmond made 19 saves in taking the loss; Moose Jaw fired 41 at Brandon’s Jiri Patera.

The Warriors are back in action Oct. 19 when they host the Calgary Hitmen (7 p.m., Mosaic Place).