Friday Battle Against The Raiders
Judging by the atmosphere around the Moose Jaw Warriors before Thursday’s practice, you wouldn’t know that the team is mired in their longest losing skid of the season.
The team was loose and enjoying themselves before their final workout ahead of Friday night’s game against the Prince Albert Raiders.
“Being loose on days like today is good, we’re not having the stress and whatnot,” said Brayden Point, the tribe’s leading scorer. “On game day, we’ve got to be a little more serious and I think the boys will do that, so hopefully it will generate into a better game.”
The Warriors currently find themselves on the losing end of nine straight games. Despite the doom and gloom that a losing streak like that might bring, the team has played well in the majority of games and just haven’t found a way to get that extra goal here or there to come out with the win.
The team has been focused this week as they aim to find their way back into the win column for the first time since January 5th.
“Obviously we think about (the losing streak) because we’d like to stop it, but I don’t think it’s gotten anyone’s spirits down or anyone’s excitement to play, so that’s good to see,” said Point. “Going into Prince Albert, we’re just going to try and stop that.”
Last weekend – when the Warriors suffered a 2-1 loss to Prince George and a 5-2 defeat in Regina – the team played well in spurts, but again couldn’t put together the full sixty minute effort needed to come away with two points.
In those games, when the fore check was going, so were the Warriors and Point feels that’s going to be the key again this weekend.
“We need good down low pressure and take it to the net, I don’t think we’ve been taking it to the net enough,” he said. “We just need to take pucks to the net and good things will happen.”
The Warriors have averaged just 1.8 goals per game over the course of their nine-game losing streak and haven’t topped three goals since winning 4-3 over Red Deer more than a month ago.
“We just haven’t been able to put the puck in enough,” said Point, who leads the team with 22 goals in 52 games. “We can’t win games with just one or two goals, so just scoring more goals is going to help us out.
“You can always score more and I’ve had some chances that I’ve missed and would like have back,” he added. “It’s a team effort though and I’m just going to try and pitch in when I can.”
One thing that can give the Warriors confidence going into Prince Albert is the fact that they’ve won four of their five meetings so far this season, including twice at the Art Hauser Centre.
“We’ve played good games against PA and we know we’ve played good in PA,” stated Point. “Obviously it gives us confidence and it’s good for our team to have a chance in a game like that. I think the boys are going to come out and have a good game.”
The Warriors and Raiders will square off at 7:00pm on Friday night. You can catch all the action by tuning into Country 100. It all starts with the Pre-Game Show at 6:40pm.
The Warriors will return home on Saturday to host the Swift Current Broncos.
V Prince Albert… Tonight is the sixth meeting between the Warriors and Raiders; it’s also the third in Northern Saskatchewan. Moose Jaw is 4-01 against the Raiders, which includes a 2-0 road record. They have outscored Prince Albert 19-13 overall and 8-6 at the Art Hauser Centre.
Brayden Point leads Moose Jaw with three goals and five points; Jesse Forsberg has a goal and five points; Tanner Eberle and Sam Fioretti have a goal and four points each; Torrin White has three goals; Bryson Gore and Jack Rodewald have two goals and three points each; Josh Uhrich and Reid Zalitach have three assists each; Justin Paulic is 2-0-1 with a 2.30gaa and .929sv%; Zach Sawchenko is 2-0 with a 3.00gaa and .891sv%.
Reid Gardiner leads Prince Albert with four goals and six points; Collin Valcourt has two goals and six points, two goals and five points came with Saskatoon; Sawyer Lange has five assists; Leon Draisaitl has two goals and four points; Jayden Hart has three assists; Carson Perreaux has two goals; Josh Morrissey has two assists; Nick McBride is 1-0 with a 2.15gaa and .923sv%; Cole Cheveldave is 0-4 with a 4.47gaa and .860sv%.
Opposition Preview… The Prince Albert Raiders enter the weekend 9th in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with 51 points and a 24-25-2-1 record. Leon Draisaitl leads the team with 22 goals, 42 assists, and 64 points. Josh Morrissey is second in team scoring with 31 assists and 48 points. During the course of the season the Raiders acquired Collin Valcourt, Graeme Craig, and Ryan Coghlan from Saskatoon, as well as Calder Brooks from Calgary. With the Raiders, Valcourt has nine points in 15 games, Craig has three points in 11 games, Brooks has seven points in 16 games, and Coghlan has two points in 12 games.
Milestones
- Sam Fioretti played his 250th career game January 21st
- Josh Uhrich played his 100th career game January 18th
- Scott Cooke played in his 100th career game January 25th
- Justin Paulic played in his 100th career game January 25th
- Kirk Johnson is six games shy of 100 for his career
- Spenser Jensen is two games shy of 150 for his career
- Tanner Eberle is 13 games shy of 200 for his career
- Brayden Point is three goals shy of 50 for his career
- Tanner Eberle is five points away from 100 for his career
- Sam Fioretti is 15 points shy of 200 for his career
- Jesse Forsberg is seven penalty minutes away from 600 for his career
Streaks
- Justin Paulic has played in 15 straight games; he’s started 18 out of the last 21 games
- Alexey Sleptsov has four assists in his last 10 games
- Scott Cooke has a goal and two points in the last six games
- Sam Fioretti has two goals and six points in his last nine games
- Jack Rodewald has three goals in the last three games
- Brayden Point has five goals and 15 points in the last 12 games
- Tanner Eberle has five goals and 11 points in the last 12 games
- Bryson Gore has one goal and two points in his last 11 games
- Torrin White has three goals and six points in the last 12 games
- Brandon Potomak is pointless in his last 14 games. He hasn’t scored since September 20th
- Reid Zalitach has two assists in his last eight games
Upcoming Schedule
- Saturday, February 8 v Swift Current
- Tuesday, February 11 v Kootenay
- Friday, February 14 @ Lethbridge
- Saturday, February 15 @ Medicine Hat
