Warriors battle back, but fall to Americans on Saturday
Moose Jaw, SK – There were ups and downs, but the Moose Jaw Warriors’ resilient effort fell just short against the Tri-City Americans on Saturday night.
Despite falling down 6-2 early in the third, the Warriors battled back to make it a one-goal game before eventually falling 7-5 at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
“We gave ourselves a chance in the third and we can definitely build off that period going into the next game,” Warriors captain Brayden Yager said.
The loss snapped a three-game point streak for the Warriors.
Yager had a goal and two points on the night, while Pavel McKenzie picked up a pair of helpers in the loss.
“Got down 6-2, but you’ve got to like the way that we stuck with it, it would have been easy to quit on a game like that, but it’s a learning process for a young group like ours to make sure we play a full 60 minutes,” Warriors assistant coach Curtis Pereverzoff said.
Moose Jaw jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Rilen Kovacevic scored his 10th of the season on a nice give-and-go with Owen Berge. It was Kovacevic’s fourth goal in the last three games.
The Americans would answer back with 25 seconds left in the first period as Brandon Whynott tipped it past Jackson Unger to tie the game at 1-1 after one.
Then just 33 seconds into the second, Tri-City took the lead as Carter MacAdams scored.
The Warriors responded later in the period when Yager snapped home his 11th of the season with 7:50 left in the frame.
Only 32 seconds later, Tri-City struck back with Max Curran restoring the lead at 3-2 and then Gavin Garland made it a two-goal lead less than three minutes later.
The Americans started the third period strong and picked up goals from Austin Zemlak and Jordan Gavin only eight seconds apart to make it a 6-2 lead for Tri-City.
The Warriors didn’t go away and Lynden Lakovic fired in his team-leading 12th of the season with 8:09 to play to cut the lead down to three.
With just under two minutes left, Warriors rookie defenceman Aaron Sawatzky let go a point shot that deflected in for his first Western Hockey League goal and making it a two-goal game.
Moose Jaw pulled within one when Connor Schmidt picked up fourth of the season with 31 seconds to play.
The Warriors pulled the goalie looking for the equalizer, but MacAdams slid his second of the night into the empty net to seal the win for the Americans with five seconds left.
Yager said the late goal in the first period for Tri-City swung momentum in their favour.
“It’s always tough when you give up a goal in the last minute of a period, that one kind of hurt and then it kind of led into how our second period went… but we’ll be better next game,” he said.
The Warriors outshot the Americans 12-11 in the third period, but were outshot 42-33 overall on the night. Moose Jaw went 0-for-1 on the power play and 3-for-4 on the penalty kill.
Next action for the Warriors is on Tuesday when they host the Swift Current Broncos at the Hangar. Puck drops at 7 p.m.
