Strong Third Leads TribeTo Win in Brandon
Three goals in the third period lifted the Moose Jaw Warriors to a 4-3 win over the Wheat Kings Friday in Brandon, improving their record to 14-17-3-4.
Moose Jaw opened the game with pressure on Brandon goalie Corbin Boes, outshooting the Wheat Kings 15-12; however they didn’t produce any results. At 4:15 the tribe turned the puck over the Brandon’s Jack Palmer, the 17 year old from Victoria snapped a quick shot past Daniel Wapple to give the home team the lead.
It took until midway through the second period for the Warriors to find the equalizer. On the power play, Kendall McFaull wristed a shot towards the net where Tanner Eberle deflected it past the goal line for his third marker in the last two games and eighth of the year.
Moose Jaw goalie Daniel Wapple was bombarded with shots in the middle frame, Brandon had an 18-4 advantage on the shot clock but the Warrior rookie goalie the game tied. That is until just over a minute to go and Brandon on the power play, an Eric Roy wrist shot into traffic hugged the post for his seventh of year to give the Wheaties a 2-1 lead after two.
Down by a goal to start the third the Warriors didn’t move away from their game plan and it was their fore-check that got them back in the game. Eberle created a turnover below the Brandon goal line at 10:14, he dished the puck to Andrew Johnson who was all alone in the slot where he scored his fifth of the year (and first since November 10th) tying the game at two.
Three minutes later Eberle, Bryson Gore, and Jordan Messier crashed the Brandon net. With the puck bouncing in the blue paint Boes had a tough time covering the puck, Messier kept banging away and eventually scored the go-ahead goal. 28 seconds later the tribe coughed the puck up at the Brandon line, Taylor Cooper finished off an odd man rush tying the game at three.
Two minutes later Moose Jaw went back on the attack. Sam Fioretti chipped it down the Wheat King left wall, Brandon Potomak settled the puck down and showed good patience before eventually setting up a slap shot from Travis Brown that hit the back of the net.
Brandon pressed late but the Warriors held off their attack, eventually skating to a 4-3 win. Eberle was named the game’s first star with a goal and three points; Wapple made 36 saves in the win and was named second star; both teams were 1-for-3 on the power play.
After pulling off back-to-back wins the Warriors will finish off a three-in-three schedule Saturday night when they return to Mosaic Place for a rematch with the Regina Pats. For tickets go online to mjwarriors.ca, or catch all the action with James Gallo starting with the PreGame Show at 6:40pm on Country 100.
