Three third-period goals help Warriors take out Hitmen
Photo: Nick Pettigrew/Moose Jaw Warriors
Moose Jaw, SK — Three goals in the third period helped the Moose Jaw Warriors blow open a tightly contested game against the Calgary Hitmen on Tuesday night.
The Warriors skated to a 5-3 win over Calgary at the Moose Jaw Events Centre to open a four-game home-stand.
“Calgary works their tails off and they make it hard on you, but we stuck with it and I thought for the most part we played a pretty solid game,” Warriors associate coach Scott King said.
Brayden Yager, Jagger Firkus and Lynden Lakovic finished with a goal and two points each, while Denton Mateychuk picked up two assists in the win.
Jackson Unger made 32 saves to backstop Moose Jaw to the victory.
Mateychuk set up two of the Warriors’ goals in the third period as they broke open the game, which was tied at 2-2 after two periods.
The Warriors captain said he was excited to get back on the ice with his teammates.
“I had a great camp in Columbus and I wanted to come back here and bring everything I can back to help the team out here with leadership and on the ice,” he said.
Owen Berge opened the scoring for the Warriors with his first WHL goal midway through the first period.
Lakovic followed that up with a highlight reel goal for his fourth of the season with just under five minutes to go in the opening frame.
Calgary pushed back with two goals in the second period, but the Warriors responded with a power play goal from Yager early in the third.
Only 37 seconds later, Brayden Schuurman fired home his first with the Warriors to put Moose Jaw in front by two.
Firkus added to the lead with his fourth of the season later in the frame as the Warriors finished off the 5-3 win.
King said the Warriors played a good game shift-to-shift in the third period to skate away with the victory.
“We did a really good job in the third period of managing pucks, for the most part, we were getting pucks in and we were just dangerous low in their zone,” he said. “Below the dots, we generated some stuff, had some real good looks inside and I liked their offensive zone play.”
The Warriors were outshot, 35-28, in the game, including 27-16 over the final two periods.
Moose Jaw finished 2-for-4 on the power play and 4-for-6 on the penalty kill in the win.
The Warriors continue their home-stand on Friday night when they host the Lethbridge Hurricanes at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
