Three late goals in 35 seconds spark Warriors to 5-2 win

By Matthew Gourlie

After exploding for nine goals in their last outing, the Moose Jaw Warriors found goals much harder to come by Thursday night — for 56 minutes, at least.

It took the Warriors 36 shots to score twice on Prince Albert Raiders goalie Curtis Meger.

Luka Burzan

However, the Warriors broke the 2-2 deadlock by scoring three goals in 35 seconds en route to a 5-2 win in Western Hockey League action.

“We stuck to the plan and played a good defensive game,” said Moose Jaw winger Luka Burzan.“We stuck to our structure and it helped us.

“We have a lot of character on our team and we believe in ourselves. It was great to see (the three late goals) and I think when we play the right way we’re able to (rally) all of the time.”

The Warriors entered the third period trailing 2-1 and equalized on their second power-play goal of the game when Brett Howden came out of a scrum along the boards with the puck and fed Brayden Burke with his seventh goal of the season.

After the Raiders failed to clear the zone twice, Howden was able to start to a quick passing play that saw Noah Gregor set up Jayden Halbgewachs to give the Warriors a 3-2 lead with 3:54 left.

That goal hadn’t been announced in Mosaic Place when Tanner Jeannot scored his 10th of the year 16 seconds later. Halbgewachs found the same top corner Jeannot did 19 seconds later to put the Warriors ahead 5-2.

“We had a lot of chances, but we didn’t get anything in tight,” said Warriors head coach Tim Hunter. “I challenged them between the second and the third that if we did play hard and did get to the inside that we would get more chances and we would get better quality chances. And we did.

“Teams know we have a lot of skill. They’re going to defend really hard against us, deny us the inside, try to keep everything to the outside and let their goalie see the shots from the outside.”

The Warriors out-shot Prince Albert 16-4 in the third period as they scored four unanswered goals.

“It was a good 55 minutes, but we have to learn how to close those games out,” said Raiders captain Curtis Miske. “It’s a 60-minute game and you give a team like this — one of the top teams in the CHL rankings — chances and they’re going to put it behind you.”

The Warriors (12-4) travel to Prince Albert for the rematch Saturday.

“It’s going to be easy to get up for that one after a defeating loss like this one,” Miske said. “Playing back-to-back division games are always fun and important.”

Brett Leason opened the scoring for Prince Albert when he ripped a wrist shot into the top corner. It was Leason’s first goal as a Raider — and second of the season — after being acquired from Tri-City a week ago in exchange for a third-round pick in 2018.

Burzan scored his second goal of the season when he crashed the net to bury a rebound on the power-play with 17.9 seconds left in the first period.

It has been a tough start to the season for Burzan from a production standpoint, but Hunter cited his gritty goal as an example of what they need more of.

“I’m trying to play my game and do the simple things,” said Burzan who had 14 goals last season. “I’m getting a lot of chances, I just need to keep doing that and eventually they’ll start going in.”

The Raiders regained the lead eight minutes into the second period when Devon Skoleski picked the pocket of Warriors defenceman Brenden Kwiatkowski in front of the Warriors net and roofed his chance from in close.

The Raiders (6-5-3-0) are fifth in the East Division, but their winning record sees them sitting in the final playoffs spot in the Eastern Conference at this early stage of the season.

The Raiders are quietly having a strong bounce back season after the disastrous 2016-17 campaign.

“We have a team we believe in,” Miske said. “As long as we keep sticking to what we’re doing we think we can stick with any team.

“It’s always easier to get up for the games when you’re the underdog. It’s always nice to be the team at the top of the division, but it’s easy to find motivation against the top teams.”

Meger was tremendous for most of the night and finished with 37 saves in the loss.

Jaxan Kaluski

The Warriors bottom-six forwards had a good night.

Hunter was happy with how Jaxan Kaluski — slotted beside Burzan and Branden Klatt— is coming along after requiring season-ending surgery on his ankle last season.

“Jaxan’s game has come along. He’s slowly gotten better and better. He has better flexibility in his foot and that has allowed him to skate better,” said Hunter, who was also pleased with his fourth line of Tate Popple, Tyler Smithies and Trystin DeRoose, saying that they did a great job and gave them good minutes.

“They were trust-worthy out there and did the right things. They’re starting to figure it out and we can start playing them more,” Hunter added.

Brody Willms made 23 saves for the Warriors.

Howden and Burke each had three points and rookie defenceman Chase Hartje had two assists and helped create the game-winning goal with a good pinch.

Moose Jaw’s Tristin Langan served his one-game suspension and defenceman Dmitri Zaitsev is week-to-week with an upper-body injury.

The Raiders were missing rookie defenceman Rhett Rhinehart who is attending the World Under-17 Hockey Challenge.