By Matthew Gourlie
For a team that had played four games — in four difference provinces — in five nights, the Moose Jaw Warriors had a lot of jump Saturday night.
The Warriors weren’t always at their best, but they used a strong third period to parlay an early lead into a 5-1 win over the Saskatoon Blades at Mosaic Place.
“It’s really nice to come back tonight, after a long night of travel, and win this one,” said Warriors captain Brett Howden who finished with two points. “It’s been a busy month. We’ve been on the run a lot lately. There’s been a lot of travel.”
The Warriors (48-14-1-2) remain a point ahead of Swift Current in the East Division standings and the Blades (31-31-2-1) fall four points behind Prince Albert in the chase for the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference.
The Warriors will finish with five of their final seven games at home, but Howden felt their hectic week will stand them in good stead once they get into the grind of the playoffs.
“The playoffs are quick. A series is a week-and-a-half long,” he said. “It’s game-game, rest, game-game. It’s a lot in a short amount of time, so it’s good that we’re getting prepared for that right now.”
“The little adversity that we’re going through, it’s good for us. We’re taking it in a positive way. It’s only going to make us better.”
The Warriors played in Cranbrook, B.C. Wednesday and then were in Brandon Friday night, where they lost 4-2 to the Wheat Kings. They showed no signs of fatigue as they opened the game with one of their best periods of the season, with all four lines swarming on the forecheck and creating chances.
“We had a great first period. We always like having great starts,” Howden said. “We’re trying work on carrying that through the whole game. They had a good push back in the second and we responded back a little later on, but they had a pretty good push back.”
Justin Almeida opened the scoring on the power play before Josh Brook doubled the Warriors lead before the end of the first period.
The Blades had a good push back in the second period and were rewarded when Jake Kustra’s bad angle shot landed in the crease for Josh Paterson to deposit into the empty net.
While the Blades had the territorial edge, the Warriors had some great chances. Brayden Burke missed the net after a great move and was robbed twice by Blades goalie Nolan Maier on great looks in close.
The Blades put together a strong start to the third period and thought they had tied the game on a Kirby Dach goal. Warriors goalie Brody Willms was caught off balance by a deflected point shot and as he reacted to make the stop, he was nudged by a Blades forward before Dach scored.
“That was big. It feels like there have been a lot of disallowed goals lately in our games,” said Howden referencing, in part, a disallowed Warriors goal from Friday night. “We got one turned over in Lethbridge, which was nice. Tonight it was big that they disallowed it and then for us to come back and answer right away I think it really killed their momentum.”
The Warriors made the most of the call as shortly thereafter Burke drew a high sticking double minor from Seth Bafaro.
It took 3:32 of the power play before Tanner Jeannot banged a pass of Jayden Halbgewach’s shin pad and in for his 61st goal of the season.
The 3-1 goal was a back-breaker and Howden scored on a breakaway 34 seconds later. Tristan Langan scored on a short-handed breakaway to finish off a strong third period for the Warriors.
“Every team is going to have a good push back, it’s how we respond is what really matters,” Howden said.
Almeida had three points and Kale Clague had a pair of assists.
Willms finished with 25 saves after being pulled midway through the first period the night before.
Maier made some outstanding saves to keep his team in it early and finished with 26 stops.
