The Moose Jaw Warriors needed to lean on their penalty kill Friday before finally killing off the hopes of a stubborn Kootenay Ice squad in a 5-2 win.
Trailing 1-0 late in the first period, the Warriors turned the game around by scoring a pair of goals 17 seconds apart to take the lead for good.
Oleg Sosunov had already blocked a pair of shots on the penalty kill when he was able to feed Brayden Burke as he came out of the penalty box. Sosunov out-raced the rest of the Ice up-ice to get on the end of Burke’s return pass. The six-foot-eight defenceman showed that big men have finesse too with a silky backhand move after breaking in clean on goal.
“I think it’s really important to block shots. It is always important,” Sosunov said.
They hadn’t even announced Sosunov’s goal when Jayden Halbgewachs buried a Noah Gregor rebound after the pair had broken in on a two-on-one.
The Warriors are now 5-0 on the season and will meet the 4-0 Swift Current Broncos Sunday at 4 p.m. at Mosaic Place.
After failing to register a point last season in 40 games in the Russian junior leagues, Sosunov’s offensive instincts looked well-tuned as he scored his third goal in five WHL games.
“I don’t think it’s talent. I think it’s hard work and the help of my teammates and a little bit of luck,” Sosunov said. “I believe in myself, yes, I can score goals. It was a two-on-one and my partner gave me a good pass.”
The Tampa Bay sixth rounder has been nothing short of a revelation since arriving in Moose Jaw. He used his great stride to chase down Vince Loschiavo on a breakaway later in the game and jumped into the rush to get another glittering scoring chance.
“I am feeling comfortable. It’s not such a different game than what I am used to before,” Sosunov said.
Moose Jaw killed off the final minute of a 1:25 five-on-three Kootenay power play to open the second period.
“The penalty kill was very important, (especially) early in the second period,” Sosunov said. “It was a close game and it was very important to kill that penalty.”
The Warriors finally broke the game open when Brett Howden roofed a short-handed goal and then set up Noah Gregor for a power-play one-timer two minutes later to stake Moose Jaw to a 4-1 lead after 40 minutes.
Justin Almeida scored his fourth of the season for Moose Jaw in the third period before Kootenay’s Colton Kroeker finished off a two-on-one with Peyton Krebs late in the third period.
The Ice had a strong start and were rewarded when Barrett Sheen used Krebs as a decoy on a two-on-one and snapped a shot over the shoulder of Warriors goalie Brody Willms.
“We had a good start, a good 15 minutes, but then we had some weak shifts after that and that carried over into the second period,” Kroeker said. “I thought five-on-five, for the most part, we played pretty well. We have to stay out of the box and obviously Moose Jaw is a good team who will take advantage of those chances.”
Kroeker said that he felt the Ice should have a better record than 2-3-1-0 — especially after squandering a 4-0 lead to Spokane — but is generally pleased with their start to the season.
“That’s part of having a young team. We have to learn how to play with the lead, but our young guys have been good for us,” Kroeker said.
The Ice were missing captain Cale Fleury who was serving the first game of a three-game suspension for his hit on Edmonton’s Davis Murray. The Ice were also missing forward Kaeden Taphorn who is day-to-day.
The Warriors called-up 15-year-old Daemon Hunt from midget AAA Brandon and the defenceman picked up his first career WHL point.
Hunt is with the team during the weekend as Josh Brook (wrist) remains out for 7-11 weeks, while Colin Paradis (upper body) is out 1-3 weeks and rookie Chase Hartje (leg) remains day-to-day.
Paradis (131) and Brook (100) lead the Warriors defence in active games played. Despite missing their most veteran blue liners, they haven’t missed a beat with four rookie defencemen playing beside Jett Woo and Dmitri Zaitsev.
Kurtis Chapman made 33 saves in goal for the Ice. Willms stopped 22 shots to earn the win.
