It wasn’t always pretty, but the Moose Jaw Warriors scored four goals on consecutive nights to pick three out of four points and extended their point streak to six games.
Saturday the Warriors skated to a 4-3 home win over the Spokane Chiefs. Friday they came from behind to earn a point in 5-4 overtime loss to the Brandon Wheat Kings. The Warriors are off to a solid 4-2-2-0 start and have the fourth-best record in the WHL’s Eastern Conference.
Much of the Warriors success has come from bottling up the opposition and not taking penalties. That wasn’t the case Saturday, but they managed to prevail regardless.
Spokane’s star defenceman Ty Smith helped give his team the lead twice after his point shots deflected past Warriors goalie Brogan Salmond.
The Warriors had only managed seven shots on Dawson Weatherill’s goal when the second period radio time out took place, but they tied the game shortly thereafter when Tate Popple scored his first of the season from a near-impossible angle when Weatherill seemed to have the short-side covered.
Smith was initially credited with the second Chiefs goal, but Carter Chorney was given credit for re-directing it a day later.
With 12.7 seconds left in the second period Brayden Tracey buried the rebound off of a Daemon Hunt point shot to tie the score at 2-2.
Hunt scored his first WHL goal early in the third when he stepped into a shot and blasted it over Weatherill on the power play.
Warriors Goal 3 by #10 Daemon Hunt Moose Jaw Ford – Your People,: https://t.co/dc9rm3qRiv via @YouTube
— Moose Jaw Warriors (@MJWARRIORS) October 14, 2018
Less than two minutes later Josh Brook checked Ethan McIndoe from behind into the boards. McIndoe stayed down and went to the Chiefs’ locker room, but returned for the late stages of the game. Brook was give a five-minute major and a game misconduct.
Adam Beckman set up Riley Woods for his seventh goal of the year to tie the game, but the Warriors managed to kill off the rest of the major penalty despite also having defenceman Jett Woo in the box for two of the five minutes. Jake McGrew did show off his great release for the Chiefs by ringing a shot off the crossbar at the end of the power play.
Hunt was credited with the game-winning goal with 8:11 left. His point shot took a big redirection — which appeared to be off the stick of Warrior rookie Daniil Stepanov — and through Weathill’s pads. Hunt and Smith each finished with three points on the night.
In his third career game Cameron Sterling earned some extra ice time and picked up his first WHL point. Tracey and Popple both finished with two points on the night.
Salmond was very sharp and finished with 27 saves.
The Chiefs had a pair of goals disallowed, a Luke Gallagher goal was disallowed for goaltender interference that would have doubled the Chiefs lead in the second period and Beckman’s go-ahead goal in the third period was ruled to have been hit with a high-stick.
After suffering their first loss of the season at the hands of the Warriors a weak earlier, the Brandon Wheat Kings grabbed an early 2-0 lead over in their Friday night meeting thanks to a pair of Schael Higson goals.
The Warriors top players and power play led them back. Brook and Tristin Langan each scored power play goals to tie the game.
Jonny Hooker restored the Wheat Kings lead before the end of the middle frame, but the Warriors responded early in the third period. Woo scored his first goal of the year and Langan scored his second of the night and seventh of the year to give the Warriors a 4-3 lead with 3:49 left.
Former Warrior Luka Burzan tied the game with his seventh of the season with 1:27 left and Connor Gutenberg scored the winner 25 seconds into overtime.
Higson finished with two goals and three assists.
Langan had four points for the Warriors and Justin Almeida chipped in with four assists.
The Warriors didn’t give up a power play chance and were 2-for-3 with the man-advantage. They out-shot the Wheat Kings 41-24 in the loss.
