WARRIORS IN ACTION
Tribe dominates Kootenay night after loss to Saskatoon
The Moose Jaw Warriors came roaring out of the gates, eventually pounding out a 5-1 win over the road-weary Kootenay Ice on Saturday at Mosaic Place. It was just a matter of getting the job done and putting another two points on the board.
Of course, it didn’t hurt that the Tribe had a reason to come out hard against the Ice – they’d fallen 5-2 to the Saskatoon Blades only 24 hours earlier and a bounceback was most certainly one of their main goals, even if things were a little unnervingly close through 20 minutes.
“We had lots of zone time in the first period and couldn’t score, (Duncan) McGovern’s a good goalie, he has a good record and he’s tough to beat but I think we just wore him down,” said Warriors coach Tim Hunter. “That was a key, keep pushing the pace, keep up with the pressure and make them play in their own end, play a 200-foot game, because when it’s a tired team, you have to take advantage of that. Everyone gets in those situations and it’s no fun and that’s just how it is.”
Despite carrying the play in the first period, the Warriors only managed eight shots. That all changed in the second, as they outshot the Ice 21-7 in the frame and scored four times to take a 4-1 lead.
Keenan Taphorn – who was recently acquired from the Ice alongside twin brother Kaeden – led the assault with a pair of goals, including a brain-bender from be- hind the Kootenay goal line that somehow found its way past McGovern.
“It felt great! It was good to help our team against the team I was traded from, and I’m happy I played the way I did,” Taphorn said. “I think it was a good game for our win; we had lots of chances. I liked the way we played and all that matters is we got the win in the end.”
Yegor Buyalski and Tristan Langan also scored in the period.
“It was second-period-itis, we wanted to do some things extra and different, an individual map instead of a team map,” Hunter said. “It’s a tough situation when you play a team that’s played three games in a row, four games in five nights. Credit to their team, though, they didn’t go away, they didn’t quit, and they played hard. But our guys stuck to our game, we pressured them right away and had lots of chances when we did stick to the game plan.”
Dalton Hamaliuk scored the Warriors’ other goal in the third.
Jaeger White had the lone marker for Kootenay. Brodan Salmond made 17 saves in earning the win in goal; McGovern made 38 saves for the Ice. Things didn’t go as well against Saskatoon one night earlier at Mosaic Place, as Max Gerlach had a pair of goals to go along with single markers from Jackson Caller and Kirby Dach as the Blades took their 5-2 win. Josh Paterson had an empty net goal. Taphorn and Langan scored for the Warriors, who were tied 1-1 after the first and trailed 3-1 through two. Salmond had 31 stops in the loss; Dorrin Luding stopped 24 for Saskatoon.
The Warriors now have a week off before hosting Red Deer on Nov. 10 (7 p.m., Mosaic Place).