Warriors beat Pats for first win after falling to Raiders
The Moose Jaw Warriors look like they could be quick learners, after their showing this past weekend in Western Hockey League action.
With the number of young players and rookies they have in their line-up, that’s pretty much going to have to be the case for a successful season.
One night after giving up four straight goals – including three in the final six minutes – on their way to a 5-4 overtime loss to the Prince Albert Raiders at Mosaic Place, the Tribe rebounded with a pair of early markers in Regina and held on for a 2-1 win over the Pats.
The split saw the Tribe improve to 1-3 on the season.
“We learned real quick how to finish off a game last night and we went over some of it after the game; we talked about the positives and we talked about the things we have to work on and we showed it (Sunday) morning. The guys responded really well,” said Warriors head coach Tim Hunter, after the win in Regina. “And when I went to talk to the team after the second period they were already discussing some of those things; we have to compete harder along the wall and the little things to get the job done.” Tristan Langan scored both Warriors goals in the first period against the Pats and the Tribe played a disciplined and defensive game from there, taking only two penalties in the contest.
It ended up being enough to get Brodan Salmond his first win in a Warriors uniform, as he turned aside 31 shots. They key now will be to keep the progression the Warriors saw in Regina going as the long season continues. “You kind of hate to think like this but going into the game it’s ‘what are the hard lessons we’re going to learn tonight’ and that’s every night you coach because there’s still a lot of lessons to be learned,” Hunter said. “So, you have those thoughts and hope to get ahead of the game and not have them happen.
That’s the great thing about our group, they’re proving resilient and they can learn from things like (Saturday) night.” In the contest against Prince Albert, Brayden Tracey scored the first two goals of his WHL career and Belorussion import Yegor Buylaski added his first WHL marker as the Warriors built a 4-1 lead two minutes into the third period. Justin Almeida had opened scoring for the Tribe 19 seconds into the second.
The Raiders weren’t about to go quietly, though and stormed back the game’s waning moments. Parker Kelly eventually tied the contest with 1:29 remaining and then scored the winner 1:35 into overtime. Adam Evanoff made 39 saves in the loss while the Warriors managed only 15 shots on Prince Albert’s Donovan Buskey despite carrying the play much of the first and second periods.
The Warriors are back in action Oct. 5 when they host Brandon and Oct. 6 at home against Swift Current.
– Warriors overage defenceman Brandon Schuldhaus played his first game of the season after serving a three-game suspension from the 2018 playoffs... Defenceman Jett Woo has recovered from injury and will be back at practice this week and in the line-up this weekend.