By Matthew Gourlie
The Kootenay Ice picked a tough night to visit Moose Jaw.
The Ice were playing their fourth game in five nights and visited the league-leading Warriors on a night when they put together one of their best 60-minute efforts of the season.
The result was a 6-0 Warriors win as the Ice just didn’t have the jump to keep up with the home team.
“It’s six games in nine nights for them. They’re a well-organized team and they’re well coached, but when we skate like we did all game that’s when we’re at our best. I don’t remember the last time we skated that hard for three periods,” said Warriors head coach Tim Hunter. “It’s great to see. I know they’re capable of it, they know they’re capable of it and they showed it tonight.”
Brody Willms made 15 saves to record his second consecutive shutout. The Warriors have allowed one goal in their last three games.
The Warriors (42-9-1-2) took nine of the first 10 shots and opened the scoring when Brayden Burke scored to net his 100th point of the season. The Ice (24-29-3-0) had their best push back of the night as they peppered Willms with six shots in a spell of seven minutes before Dmitri Zaitsev and Brett Howden scored a minute apart to give the Warriors a 3-0 lead after the first period.
“The team played really well tonight. It was one of the best team efforts we’ve had in awhile,” said Burke who reached the 100-point mark for the second time in his career. “Obviously it’s nice to get that personal accolade, but the team played really well.
“I come into every season trying to play my best and create offence and do my thing on the ice. If I do that, the points will come on their own.”
Willms made a pair of strong stops at the end of a Kootenay first period power play when the game was still 1-0. He turned away Colton Kroeker’s rebound chance at the side of the net in an important sequence.
“He had to make some good saves at times. They still had some good scoring chances,” Hunter said. “He had a little tweak of an injury awhile ago and we gave him some games off and played Adam (Evanoff) a little more. It’s going to be a heavy schedule moving forward. We’re going to get Adam in to keep developing him, but Willmsy is our number one guy and we want to get him confident and get him in a groove. That’s really important.”
Burke and Howden finished with two goals and an assist apiece and Zaitsev had a goal and two assists. Brandon Schuldhaus scored his fourth goal as a Warrior to match his career total before coming to Moose Jaw 13 games ago. Schuldhaus and Kale Clague each had two-point nights.
“I think Brandon Schuldhaus played the best game I’ve seen him play,” Hunter said. “Zaitsev as well — moving pucks quick, getting pucks to the net — Z was plus-four and had three points. They all chipped in and did a good job, but I thought those two did a real good job.
“Our fourth line played well and played a considerable amount. Brecon Wood played his best game from start to finish for us. Branden Klatt had a really good weekend and competed. He’s starting to do what we asked of him, stepping up playing hard and competing harder.”
Howden’s three-point night gives him 241 points and moves him into ninth on the Warriors’ all-time points list and past his brother Quinton Howden who had 239 career points.
The Ice have lost six of their last seven, but will return home for a Monday afternoon game against Lethbridge.
The Warriors will now play three straight games against the Regina Pats beginning Valentine’s Day evening in the Queen City.
