REGINA – Wednesday afternoon’s tilt between Moose Jaw (4-3-0) and Brandon (4-2-1) pitted the Subway WHL Hub’s youngest team against its oldest; and the way it went, that is exactly how it looked as the Wheat Kings crushed the Warriors 8-2 in the Brandt Centre.
A rounded effort from all players rewards the @bdnwheatkings with a victory in the #SubwayWHLHub!
?| https://t.co/MEaZ7HKdX4 pic.twitter.com/xRRK6ZNFCH
— The WHL (@TheWHL) March 25, 2021
“It was a real tough night,” Moose Jaw head coach Mark O’Leary said post-game.
“I thought we were chasing the game, missing the work ethic, and some penalty-trouble later on; these are all things in our control. It’s one thing if the bounces are not going our way, but I don’t think that was the case tonight. The things that went wrong tonight were in our control, which doesn’t leave a really good taste in our mouth, but the good news is that we can fix these things.”
There was almost nothing sharp from Mark O’Leary’s Warriors, while the Wheat Kings were flying from the jump.
It took all of 25 seconds for the Wheat Kings to jump on the young Warriors as Ridley Grieg snapped the puck to Ben McCartney, who found Jake Chiasson back door for a one-timer from the right face-off dot past a helpless Boston Bilous.
“I didn’t like our start,” O’Leary continued.
“I thought the first goal was about details on the backcheck, and it was not a first-year guy. Our older guys were missing assignments.”
Then under 50 seconds later came a moment to forget for Bilous when a long shot from the half-wall by Lynden McCallum evaded the 19-year-old Moose Jaw goaltender over the right blocker, and it was 2-0 Brandon before anyone could blink.
Chiasson notched his second of the game’s first 10 minutes on a well-worked power-play goal at 16:57, and then Bilous’ night was done after giving up the fourth goal on Brandon’s sixth shot a minute later when McCartney tipped in a Nolan Ritchie point shot on another Wheat Kings’ man advantage.
It was the second time at the Hub that Brett Mirwald came in relief, as the rookie was called upon after Bilous had given up four first-period goals during the Warriors’ 5-4 victory vs. Regina on March 16.
Brayden Yager got one back, chipping home a goalmouth scramble at 16:19 on a two-minute five-on-three power play for Moose Jaw, and as the buzzer sounded to end the period, the best news for the Warriors is that they had 40 whole minutes to claw their way back.
Brayden Yager gets a power play goal to get us on the board! we trail 4-1.#SubwayWHLHub pic.twitter.com/ofUKqWaGtl
— Moose Jaw Warriors (@MJWARRIORS) March 24, 2021
Tate Popple was millimeters away from Moose Jaw’s second 9:30 into the middle frame when his wired shot just to the right of Connor Ungar clanged off the inside of the iron, but a better start to the period meant little if the Warriors could not get the next goal.
They couldn’t, and then it got ugly.
That next marker they badly needed went to the Wheat Kings, who put home their own two-man-advantage with a one-timed rocket from Vincent Iorio at 11:15. It was the Ottawa Senators’ first-rounder Ridley Greig’s third assist of the contest that effectively put the game on ice.
Brandon went 5-for-7 with the power play, almost doubling Moose Jaw’s power-play-goals-against total on the year since the Warriors opened the game having given up a total of eight over the previous six contests.
“I think our lack of discipline goes back to the effort and compete,” O’Leary said.
“It’s hard to check with your feet and your stick on the puck, and if you don’t want to do that then the hooking and slashing penalties start to happen. I think that’s where we got into trouble tonight: we didn’t want to do the hard work, and obviously, we came up against a very good power play and they made us pay. That was the story of the night.”
Two Wheat Kings notched their first career WHL goals, as Nate Danielson and Logen Hammett found the back of the net, as did Neithan Salame before the second was over.
Calder Anderson chipped in his first of the season on a late Warrior power play at 15:32 of the third period for a late consolation.
Moose Jaw now has two days to regroup before it takes on the Prince Albert Raiders Saturday night.
“Eventually we’ll get to throwing it away but we’ll certainly learn from it,” O’Leary added.
“By no means is it time to panic, that was not the message. It is one game, but there are things that in our control that we can fix, but we need to fix them now. We can work with these issues, we’ll have patience with that, but the effort and compete level to start the game are non-negotiables and we need to be better here.”
Notes: Moose Jaw’s leading scorer Ryder Korczak missed out, along with rookie defenceman Max Wanner, with what was termed as an ‘upper-body injury’; Brandon’s captain and New York Rangers first-round pick Braden Schneider was scratched with a ‘lower-body injury’.
