Warriors double up Pats to open weekend on Friday
Moose Jaw, Sask. – Despite giving up the opening goal in the first minute of the game, the Moose Jaw Warriors skated to their first win of the season on Friday night.
Moose Jaw scored three times in the second period and beat the Regina Pats, 4-2, at the Hangar to kick-off a weekend home-and-home set between the Trans-Canada rivals.
“It feels really good… it was a hard-working effort by our group,” Warriors forward Brayden Schuurman said after the win.
After dropping two close games in the opening weekend of the season, the Warriors bounced back with a strong start-to-finish effort against the Pats to come away with the win.
Assistant coach Curtis Pereverzoff said it was an important win for the team.
“You don’t want to go 0-3 and then head into Regina on Sunday,” he said. “We made sure we got back to our game plan and our structure and I thought for the most part, we did that.”
Zackary Shantz score just 39 seconds into the game for Regina, but the Warriors responded after that to play a complete game.
Warriors goalie Dimitri Fortin settled in after the opening goal and stopped 33 out of 35 shots he faced from the Pats.
“I thought Dimitri was great tonight, I thought he was calm in the net and he made a lot of big saves for us and a lot of mad scrambles around the net, there was a lot of chaos going in front, so he did a good job making sure he stayed in front of it,” Pereverzoff said.
Moose Jaw got on the board when Rilen Kovacevic stole the puck in the neutral zone and broke for a shorthanded goal just 1:11 into the second period.
Only 1:14 after that, Schuurman broke down the wing and snapped home his second of the season to give the Warriors a 2-1 lead.
The Warriors added to the advantage late in the second when Lynden Lakovic fired in his second of the season, making it 3-1 for Moose Jaw after two.
Max Finley provided the insurance for the Warriors with his first of the season 8:43 into the third.
Tanner Howe would pull the Pats back within two with just over seven minutes to play, but that was as close as they would get.
“In the first, we sat back a little bit and in the second period, we were really took pride in winning the races and battles and making sure we were doing that,” Schuurman said.
Moose Jaw went 0-for-5 on the power play in the win, while Regina was 1-for-2 with the man advantage.
These two teams will meet again on Sunday afternoon in the Queen City. Puck drops at 2 p.m.
