MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- Things didn’t look good early for the Moose Jaw Warriors on Saturday night in Medicine Hat, but by the time things were said and done, one could get a feel for how they won the Western Hockey League Championship last season.
Despite falling behind 2-0 early in the first period, the Warriors would rally for four straight goals before going on to a 6-3 victory in Medicine Hat.
Moose Jaw improved to 2-3-1-0 with the win and moved into seventh place in the Eastern Conference, while the Tigers fell to 1-4-0-0 and are now 11th overall.
“I think tonight we looked like the Moose Jaw Warriors,” said head coach Mark O’Leary. “I was real proud of the guys, especially being down 2-0 early on, but I thought we showed signs tonight of that punch-back mentality, where regardless of the circumstances in front of us, we continued to worry about the things we had control of. I just thought we played a really good hockey game.”
Medicine Hat opened scoring 3:31 into the game, and it was a bit of a lucky bounce, with a shot by Bryce Pickford going off the end boards right to Hunter St. Martin at the side of the net, and his quick shot would give the Tigers a 1-0 edge early in the contest.
St. Martin then struck again six minutes later, going in on a quick two-on-one and beating Warriors goaltender Jackson Unger top shelf glove side for the 2-0 lead.
One night after scoring his first WHL goal, Noah Degenstein got the Warriors back within one with 7:35 to play in the frame, banging home the rebound off a shot from the point by Aiden Ziprick.
Only 40 seconds after that goal, it was a tie game, this time thanks to Deegan Kinniburgh’s first goal as a Warrior. Kalem Parker got off a hard shot in close, and Kinnburgh would follow up the play and bang home the rebound to knot things up 2-2.
After being shutout the previous night in Lethbridge, the Warriors’ power play would give Moose Jaw the lead before the first period was out. Brayden Schuurman set up in front of the net and perfectly redirected a pass-shot from the point by Brayden Yager with 2:55 remaining in the frame.
The second period got off to a good start for the Warriors, with Schuurman scoring his second of the game four minutes into the frame. Lynden Lakovic carried the puck into the Medicine Hat zone before sending a pass back into the slot for the overage forward, and Schuurman would fire a shot home for the 4-2 edge.
Putting together that kind of rally against a team with as much talent as the Tigers was as positive a sign as could be for O’Leary.
“They’re a real good team, they transition fast, they have all kinds of skill up front and they can generate some pretty good looks,” he said. “But when you watch the game, I thought we did a real good job of keeping them to the outside and when they did get inside, that’s why you have a goaltender and Jackson made some big saves.”
While the Tigers managed to make it a one-goal game with 2:23 remaining in the second on a goal from Oasiz Weisblatt, that would be the last time they’d beat Unger on the night -- and that’s despite a third period where the ice was extremely tilted in the Tigers favour.
The pressure was finally relieved when Rilen Kovacevic scored an empty netter with 2:29 to play, and Yager added a second goal into the empty net with 20 seconds remaining to cap scoring on the night.
Schuurman’s two goals give him eight points on the season and see him tied for eighth in WHL scoring, while Yager picked up a goal and assist and now has five points in two games since returning from Winnipeg.
All in all, it was a much needed confidence boost for a squad that hasn’t seen the best of results to start the season despite being in nothing but close games.
“That was the message this morning,” O’Leary said. “The record is what it is, it looks bad because it’s the start of the year, but we’ve lost four games this season and all of them have been one-goal games. So at the end of the day the margin is real tight, and we just have to find a way to flip the script. Today, we did.”
Unger finished with 24 saves on the night, while Harrison Meneghin turned aside 21.
The Warriors are back in action Friday night when the Everett Silvertips make their biannual appearance at the Moose Jaw Events Centre. Game time is 7 p.m.
