Langan and Almeida have huge night for Warriors

First Tristin Langan got the Teddy bears flying onto the ice and finally he got some hats thrown on the ice.

Langan scored the Teddy bear toss goal for the second straight year and then completed his hat trick in the third period as the Moose Jaw Warriors beat the Regina Pats 6-3 on Saturday night.

The night before the Pats snapped their nine-game losing streak with a 2-1 win over the Warriors at the Brandt Centre.

The Warriors head into the holiday break with a 17-8-4-1 record and sit in third place in the East Division, though they have five games in hand on second-place Saskatoon.

While Langan posted a hat trick Saturday, Justin Almeida had a career night for the Warriors, scoring twice and adding four assists as he was in on each goal. He now has 42 points in 26 games this season.

Regina got off to a dream start as Robbie Holmes scored 56 seconds in.

It didn’t last long as Langan scored 14 seconds later to tie the game and get the stuffed animals flying.

Almeida scored with four seconds left in the opening frame to give the Warriors a 2-1 lead.

Pats tied the game on a two-man advantage thanks to Austin Pratt’s 13th goal of the season.

Dalton Hamaliuk and Langan staked the Warriors to a 4-2 lead, but Holmes’ second of the night and sixth of the season with eight seconds left in the second to give the visitors some momentum and cut the lead to one.

Justin Almeida

Almeida scored on the power play to restore the Warriors two-goal lead and Langan iced the game with his hat trick-goal.

Langan now has 24 goals on the year. That has him tied for fourth in league, which is where he sits with his 54 points on the WHL scoring list.

The Warriors were 3-for-7 on the power play and the Pats were 2-for-6 with the man advantage.

Brodan Salmond made 23 saves to earn the win.

Dean McNabb stopped 15 of 19 shots in two periods of work and Max Paddock made five saves in relief during the third period.

In Regina, the Pats scored twice in the second period and those goals stand up in the third period to skate away with the win.

Kaeden Taphorn opened the scoring for the Warriors on the power play four minutes into the second period.

Riley Krane tied the game for the Pats before Steven Zonneveld scored his first WHL goal on a play that had the visitors appealing for an offside call.

Zonneveld and Marco Creta were both a plus-two on the night for the Pats.

McNabb made eight saves in the third period to preserve the lead. He finished with 26 wins on the night.

Adam Evanoff made 16 saves in goal for the Warriors.

Eric Alarie, the Warriors 2018 first round Bantam pick, made his WHL debut for Moose Jaw Friday.