Warriors well-positioned as Brook and Hunter head to WJC camp

The Moose Jaw Warriors have to like where they’re sitting as their head coach and captain head off to begin their World Junior tournament adventure in British Columbia.

The Warriors earned a weekend split with the Saskatoon Blades and thanks to their 16-7-4-1 record and one of the surprise teams in the Western Hockey League. The Warriors surged up the standings with an eight-game winning streak and sit in third place in the East Division and are solidly in a post-season place.

Saturday, the Warriors lost 5-3 to the Blades in the final game before head coach Tim Hunter assumes the same role with the Canadian junior team and defenceman Josh Brook looks to earn a job with the world junior team.

Josh Brook of the Moose Jaw Warriors. Allen Douglas Photo

Friday night, the Warriors came back from 2-0 down to earn a 3-2 win in Saskatoon.

In Moose Jaw Saturday, the Blades rode a four-goal second period to a 5-3 win.

Riley McKay opened the scoring for the Blades before Tate Popple and Keenan Taphorn scored to give Moose Jaw a 2-1 lead after a period.

Zach Huber, Brandon Schuldhaus, Gary Haden and Josh Paterson struck in the middle frame. Warriors goalie Brodan Salmond was pulled after the second after stopping 17 of 22 shots.

The Warriors have had a never-say-die attitude that has served them well this year, but they weren’t able to mount a comeback despite out-shooting the Blades 15-3 in the third period. Tristin Langan scored his 21st of the season to pull the Warriors to within two, but they would get no closer.

Dorrin Luding made 28 saves and picked up an assist in goal for the Blades.

Luke Ormsby, right, while playing in Everett makes a move against Prince George’s Jack Sander. (Photo by Christopher Mast/Icon Sportswire)

Warriors general manager Alan Millar made a couple of deals to address their forward depth after Ryan Peckford left the team. They acquired 19-year-old right winger Luke Ormsby from Everett in exchange for a sixth round pick in 2022.

Friday Ormsby scored his second goal in as many games and saw some time on the Warriors top line. The Warriors also acquired 17-year-old forward Kjell Kjemhus from Prince George for a seventh round pick in 2020 and he has added energy to the Warriors’ bottom-six forward group.

In Saskatoon, Eric Florchuk and Paterson staked the Blades to a 2-0 lead in the first period before Ormsby got the comeback started for Moose Jaw. Brayden Tracey’s 10th of the year was the game-winner and Langan finished with a goal and two assists. Jett Woo had a pair of assists as well.

Brodan Salmond

The Warriors were 2-for-3 on the power play and Salmond made 33 saves to earn the win in his first start in six games as he made his return from injury.

Friday’s win was the 20th time in 27 games that the Warriors played in a game decided by a goal. The win left the Warriors an incredible 11-1-4-1 record in one-goal games.

The Warriors rallied to earn a point Wednesday in a 6-5 overtime loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers. Moose Jaw trailed 3-1 early, but Keenan Taphorn scored the only goal of the third period to force overtime.

Ryan Jevne’s second of the game came on the power play and ended the contest in overtime.

Daniel Baker had a goal and two assists for the Tigers who also got goals from Joel Craven, Tyler Preziuso and James Hamblin.

Jett Woo had a goal and three assists for the Warriors, while Ormsby, Brook and Langan also scored. Justin Almeida had three assists in the loss. The Warriors were 3-for-4 on the power play which helped them stay in the game.