PREVIEW | Warriors look to snap skid in Prince George
Prince George, BC – The Moose Jaw Warriors are focused on staying positive after dropping the first two games of their BC Division road trip.
“We’ve had a couple of stages throughout the games where we’ve played really well as a team and we can definitely build off that,” Warriors assistant captain Kalem Parker said.
The Warriors will look to get back on track when they head into Prince George to battle the Cougars at CN Centre on Tuesday night.
Moose Jaw is winless in its past seven games heading into Prince George and Parker said they’ve gotten away from what makes them successful.
“We’ve gone through stages in the game where we haven’t played like ourselves and haven’t played up to our standard here in Moose Jaw, so we’ve got to clean that up in video, learn from it and be hard on each other,” he said.
While the Warriors will be challenging themselves to improve, Parker said staying loose going into the game is also key.
“When you’re on a skid like this, you’ve got to have fun with the boys in the locker room and have fun playing hockey,” he said. “We play this game because we love it and we’ve got to remind ourselves of that.”
As the Warriors look to get out of their current slump, the team is focused on getting back to what makes them successful.
Parker said it needs to start with cleaning up their puck management.
“We’ve had a lot of turnovers in the offensive zone and defensive zone, myself included, so we’ve got to clean up that, especially against PG, they’re a skilled, fast hockey team,” he said.
The Warriors will battle a Cougars team that sits second in the BC Division and fourth in the Eastern Conference with a 7-4-2-2 record through 15 games this season.
The Cougars are led by Borya Valis with six goals and 21 points in 13 games, while Minnesota Wild prospect Riley Heidt has eight goals and 20 points in 11 games.
“They’re really good off the rush, they’re pretty deep with their skill, so we’ve just got to play smart and shut down their top guys,” Parker said.
The Warriors and Cougars face-off at 8 p.m. on Tuesday night. Tune into all the action on CHL TV and Country 100, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 7:40 p.m.
