Warriors end road trip with loss to Giants on Saturday
Langley, B.C. – The Moose Jaw Warriors saw their BC Division road trip end with a 6-2 loss to the Vancouver Giants on Saturday night.
“Once they got a couple of quick ones [in the second period], the wheels started to fall off a little bit,” Warriors assistant coach Curtis Pereverzoff said. “Those are always hard moments that you’ve got to fight to climb back up that hill… I thought in the third, we did respond, had some good looks and chances, but at the end of the day, it’s too little, too late.”
The Warriors went 1-4-0-0 over their road trip, which saw them play five games over 11 days.
Pereverzoff said the Warriors can learn from missed opportunities in competitive moments during the road trip.
“When we’re deciding that we want to win puck battles, we want to engage and be around the puck, we’re going to be a hard team to play against,” he said. “On the other side, when you’re not doing that, there’s going to be a lot of teams that will make you pay for that.”
The Warriors and Giants started out physical in the game and then just past the midway point of the first period, the offences found their stride as well.
Vancouver opened the scoring on a goal from Adam Titlbach with 7:20 to play in the first period.
Only 17 seconds later, the Warriors responded as Rilen Kovacevic finished on a breakaway for his fourth of the season.
The Giants retook the lead with a pair of goals in the final five minutes of the first period from Tyus Sparks and Cameron Schmidt to make it 3-1 after one.
Schmidt picked up his second of the game just three minutes into the second period and then Mazden Leslie made it 5-1 only 19 seconds later.
Trailing by four heading into the third, the Warriors got the start to the frame that they were looking for as Ethan Hughes snapped home his first of the season just 3:18 into the period.
That was as close as the Warriors could get, however, as Schmidt completed the hat trick with 4:59 to go in the third to seal the win.
Jackson Unger allowed five goals on 14 shots to take the loss for the Warriors, while Dimitri Fortin came on in relief and stopped 19-of-20 shots he faced.
Moose Jaw was outshot 34-21 on the night, while the power play went 0-for-3 and the penalty kill finished 4-for-4.
The Warriors will now make the long trip back to Moose Jaw after the game. They return to action at the Hangar coming up on Friday night when they host the Lethbridge Hurricanes.