By Matthew Gourlie
After three weeks of high-octane offensive hockey, the Moose Jaw Warriors contested a game that had much more of a playoff-style edge to it.
Space was at a premium in the offensive zones and the area in front of each net was hotly contested Sunday afternoon as the Warriors beat Medicine Hat 5-4 in overtime.
Tigers (24-17-4-0) captain Mark Rassell deflected a point shot with 39.7 seconds left to cap the visitors three-goal third period comeback.
Warriors (36-7-1-2) captain Brett Howden jammed away at a loose puck in the crease in overtime until he got it across the line to end the game.
“There are a lot of teams who like to clog the front of the net and get a lot of traffic there. That creates opportunities to get pucks through and when there’s traffic sometimes the goalie doesn’t see it,” said Warriors defenceman Brandon Schuldhaus. “Our forwards did a good job of getting to the front of the net and taking away the goalie’s eyes.”
When the Warriors acquired Schuldhaus from Red Deers shortly before the trade deadline they were looking for the six-foot-four 19-year-old veteran to be presence in front of their own net.
“Other teams are looking to do the exact same thing to us, so we’re looking to box guys out in front and if there are rebounds, make sure they’re unable to get second or third chances,” Schuldhaus said.
Schuldhaus had four career WHL goals in 165 games heading into Sunday’s game. He scored the first two goals of the game to give Moose Jaw a 2-0 lead.
“It’s nice to score goals and being a guy that typically doesn’t score a lot of goals in a season, it feels good to get a couple, especially in the same game,” he said “Playing against Medicine Hat, there’s a lot of room up top, so that was something we were looking to do coming in… try to get some (point) shots on net.”
The Warriors were able to get a lot of pucks and traffic at the Tigers net, but Medicine Hat goalie Jordan Hollett made a number of excellent saves to keep his team in the game.
“My team did a great job of helping me tonight, they battled really hard,” said Hollett who made 35 saves. “That’s the name of the game. You have to battle hard in front of the net. That little area is where 99 per cent of the scoring chances and goals come from. If you battle hard in that area you’re going to give yourself the best chance to win.”
For the second straight visit to Mosaic Place, the Tigers trailed by three goals in the third period and battled back to tie it 4-4 before losing 5-4. The last time, Brayden Burke scored the winner with 14 seconds left. This time, at least, the Tigers took away a point.
“We battled really hard. I’m proud of the guys for working that hard against a team of that caliber,” Hollett said. “It’s hard to come up short at the end, but I think we’re proud of work ethic and how hard we battled.”
Dmitri Zaitsev gave Moose Jaw a 3-0 lead 1:14 after Schuldhaus’ second and then early in the third period Jayden Halbgewachs’ 48th of the season gave the Warriors a 4-1 lead.
Jaeger White and Bryan Lockner scored to get the Tigers back in the game. Kristians Rubins scored on a deflected point shot to get the Tigers on the board.
“Obviously there are some things we would like to tighten up, but at the end of the day we got the two points and that’s what matters,” Schuldhaus said.
Medicine Hat had some chances to win in overtime, but Brody Willms robbed Ryan Jevne with his glove and then made another strong stop off of Rubins. Willms finished with 37 saves in his 100th WHL game.
Incredibly, Lockner scored on the only power play of the game with 3:42 left.
Zaitsev drew a penalty just before he scored on the delayed call, otherwise neither referee raised their arm for nearly 55 minutes of hockey.
