Keith Hershmiller
East Division, Game Recap, Prospects

Warriors fall to Raiders despite improvement

Written by Jamie Neugebauer on

 

REGINA – Eric Pearce scored the game-winner 1:53 into the third period and the Prince Albert Raiders (3-3-2) dropped the Moose Jaw Warriors (4-4-0) to .500 for the first time at the Subway WHL Hub, taking a 5-2 decision Saturday at the Brandt Centre.

While both clubs were coming off disappointing performances by their own respective admissions (P.A. had fallen 5-3 to the struggling Regina Pats Thursday), the Warriors likely had the most to prove after getting obliterated in all areas in an 8-2 thrashing at the hands of the Brandon Wheat Kings Wednesday.

Despite the loss to the Raiders, Moose Jaw head coach Mark O’Leary was pleased overall with his club’s bounce-back post-game.

“It was all about the response today,” he said.

“That was the message to the group before the game, and the score is going to be what it is at the end of the night, but after a tough couple of losses last week, we wanted to have the right response, and I thought the guys did that tonight. We found our game quickly, even with the score the way that it was, we felt confident we would be there at the end with the way we were playing. There were hiccups along the way, but I liked the response, and it was nice to see everyone contribute to the style we were wanting to play.”

A much-improved start for the Warriors from Wednesday was rewarded when the Hub’s best power play (at 34.4 percent) clicked 6:11 into the contest. Daemon Hunt found Brayden Yager curling off the right half-wall, and his rocket around the dot was deflected by Eric Alarie for the draft-eligible 18-year-old’s team-leading fifth of the season.

The elation did not last long.

Wiesblatt got it back just over two minutes later with a bullet from his own at the top of the right circle, and then a shorthanded goal seconds after a Hunt turnover at the defensive blue line off the stick of Justin Nachbaur at 12:46 flipped the early script quick.

Nevertheless, the effort level that had Moose Jaw as the early talk of the town at the Regina Hub appeared to be back for the Warriors, who held the balance of play for a lot of the first 40 minutes, and the chances were coming for O’Leary’s men hunting to tie the game up.

“I think we had the looks tonight,” O’Leary said.

“I think we might have had more looks tonight than in some of (the games we won earlier in the campaign). I thought our second period tonight might have been one of our best periods of the season. I just thought the process was there, and we were playing the way we wanted to play, and the difference was that the puck was not going in the net. I still liked our game…as a coach I liked the process and I feel like if we do what we did tonight more often than not we will come out with a win.”

It finally came at the 9:10-mark as a beautiful passing play, highlighted by a brilliant cross-ice feed through the heart of the Raiders’ defence from Atley Calvert to Cade Hayes, which was followed up by a blast from the left hashmark past a moving Serhyenko.

Mirwald perhaps made up for his earlier indiscretions with just over five minutes remaining in the middle stanza when he stoned Matthew Culling in alone on a two-on-none break, and except for the five middle minutes of the first period, was excellent overall.

“For a guy like Brett, I know he’s a young kid, but he has shown early on his ability to just stay even keel,” said O’Leary.

“Even when he’s making big saves he doesn’t get too high, and when some get by him early on he doesn’t get too low either. He knows what he’s capable of, and on the bench, he really gives us that confidence.”

Yager was millimeters from taking the lead back for Moose Jaw nearly as the buzzer sounded to end the second as his wrister beat Serhyenko high glove side and clanked off the iron.

It was the Raiders who came out punching in the third and Eric Pearce snapped a quick one 1:53 in on a rebound, and the see-saw battle continued.

A nifty Wiesblatt spin-o-rama with 7:13 left in regulation forced Warriors’ defender Nolan Jones into a tripping penalty, and then while on the kill, a very questionable head-contact major call on Hunt sent the Moose Jaw captain the early showers, and the P.A. Raiders to a long five-on-three.

“Our veterans did their job in terms of killing those penalties,” said O’Leary.

“They gave us a chance in the end. They did a heck of a job today in a real tough situation, we know what we have in a couple of those gritty guys, and it’s nice to have them in moments like that, but the common denominator is the resiliency of the whole group.”

Mirwald was front and centre for that kill, along with the likes of blue-line wunderkind Denton Mateychuk and 20-year-old Tate Popple, but the Warriors could not generate enough chances with the net pulled, and the Raiders grabbed two quick empty-netters to put the game on ice.

O’Leary commented post-game that despite rumours of a longer-term injury, assistant captain and leading point-getter Ryder Korczak would be “back soon”, and despite a lack of an official update, suggested that the situation for the draft-eligible forward was “positive”.

For the Warriors, who have scored a WHL-high 48 percent of their goals on the power play so far, a player like Korczak, who is a real five-on-five threat, as well as a key member of the man-advantage, would be enormous to get back in.

Moose Jaw will look to snap its three-game slide Sunday night when it takes on the Winnipeg Ice in the second half of the weekend back-to-back. Winnipeg won 5-2 in the clubs’ first meeting of the year back on March 18.