Keith Hershmiller
East Division, Game Recap

ICE score four in first, hold off Warrior rally

Written by Jamie Neugebauer on

 

REGINA – The Winnipeg Ice (10-4-0) scored four goals in four minutes in the first period and held on to down the Moose Jaw Warriors (6-7-1) 6-3 Wednesday afternoon.

A strong start from the Warriors was canceled out fast, as they ran into penalty trouble, and gifted the Ice a long five-on-three; and the Hub’s best power play went to work.

Las Vegas first-rounder Peyton Krebs found some space at the top of the zone and used a screen to fire an absolute laser beam past a screened Mirwald at 9:01. The Winnipeg man-advantage, that came into the game at a sizzling 33.3%, showed no mercy, and Connor McLennon jammed home a rebound from an Owen Pederson shot to double the lead a minute later.

Fine 2005-born forward Zach Benson and Cole Muir added two more quick ones, and by the time the clock hit 6:49 left in the opening frame, it was already 4-0 Winnipeg.

But much like in Monday’s big comeback against Regina, these Warriors don’t know when to quit.

A pretty Jagger Firkus snipe low glove side at the 14:09-mark cut the lead to three, and then a power-play rocket from Denton Mateychuk at 17:05 snipped the deficit in half, and it was game on.

An even second period was highlighted by a bevy of effective Moose Jaw power plays, but the Warriors’ third came even strength as Atley Calvert snapped home from the slot with just over two minutes left, and the slow crawl back continued.

The third period tightened up considerably, with chances extremely hard to come by, and down one with just over four minutes left, a boarding penalty against Moose Jaw’s Calder Anderson led to a neatly worked one-time finish from Jakin Smallwood.

It was the third power-play goal of the game for Winnipeg, and the air seemed to escape from the Moose Jaw balloon.

McLennon added an empty netter with just over a minute remaining in regulation.

The Warriors are back in action Friday evening when they take on the Swift Current Broncos, puck drops at 8 P.M.

Note: Moose Jaw saw forwards Ryder Korczak and Cade Hayes, and defenceman Max Wanner all returned to the lineup after seven games out with injury.