MOOSE JAW -- The Moose Jaw Warriors were once again within striking distance of their Western Hockey League opponent heading into the final period on Saturday night, and once again saw things get away.
The Brandon Wheat Kings scored three goals in the third period to blow open a 2-1 game, eventually going on to a 5-2 win at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
Brandon improved to 16-10-3-2 and moved from eighth to fifth place in the Eastern Conference, one point out of third and two back of second.
Moose Jaw dropped to 8-21-3-1 and remain in 11th place in the Conference.
The loss marked the second straight game they were right there with their opponents heading into the third, with the Warriors having given up five goals in the third period in a 5-2 loss to Saskatoon a night earlier.
“I think both nights we just missed on too many opportunities early in the game and manufactured way too many looks for them,” said Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary. “Our execution with the puck turns into grade A scoring chances for them and they cash in.”
Finding a way to fix those issues and get back to their pre-Christmas winning ways will be a focus in the coming days.
“It’s just practice, repetition and time,” O’Leary said of what it’ll take to fix things. “It’s frustrating as hell going through it, but you have to continue to believe that what’s on the other side is much better and you have to keep up with the talk in the dressing room. Whether it’s us as coaches or the player themselves, we have to talk about the right things and ultimately do them. And if we do that over the course of time, we will improve.”
The fact the Warriors were once again in the hunt heading into the third was a positive, and something that the team hopes will start producing good results in the near future.
“You just keep picking yourself up and continue to fight,” O’Leary said. ‘It’s no different within the game, bad things are going to happen and you’re going to have tough periods, but you have to fight through it. So we’ll continue to fight, we’ll get in a good practice in tomorrow and Monday and prepare ourselves for Tuesday (against the Regina Pats).”
Brandon opened scoring 6:11 into the contest, with a turnover behind the net leading to a scramble in front, ending when Marcus Nguyen found the loose puck and put it into the open cage.
The Warriors' offence took a hit midway through the frame when team leading scorer Lynden Lakovic went hard into the boards and appeared to suffer an upper body injury. He wouldn’t return to the game and will be evaluated further.
A too-many-men penalty gave the Wheat Kings a chance to increase their advantage with 9:35 to play in the first, and Nolan Flamand would get the job done, redirecting a Luke Shipley point shot home 1:13 into the man advantage.
That’s where things would sit at the end of the first period, with Moose Jaw outshooting Brandon 11-9 in the opening 20 minutes.
The Warriors received their third power play of the game early in the second period, and they’d capitalize. Rilen Kovacevic walked in off the blueline and found Pavel McKenzie at the side of the net, and he’d jam the puck past Brandon goaltender Alex Garrett to make it a one-goal game with 1:01 gone.
The two teams had a few chances to work on their special teams as the period progressed, but there’d be no further scoring, and the Wheat Kings would take their one-goal lead into the third.
Some solid puck movement in the Warriors’ zone would see Brandon extend their lead 6:32 into the third. Carter Klippenstein did the honours, putting a perfect shot from the slot top shelf blocker side to make it a 3-1 game.
Klippenstein then extended the lead to three with just over nine minutes to play, picking up the puck in the Warriors zone, getting into the slot and putting another great shot top shelf blocker side.
Brandon took advantage of their fourth power play to further extend their lead with seven minutes to play, with Flamand picking up his second of the contest on a one-timer from the right faceoff circle.
Connor Schmidt got one back for the Warriors with 2:45 to play, getting off a shot from the point that Garrett got a piece of, only for the puck to trickle past him and into the net.
That would be as close as Moose Jaw would get, and Brandon had their three goal win.
Smith finished with 28 saves while the Warriors fired 37 shots at Garrett.
The Warriors return to the ice Tuesday when they host the Regina Pats, with a New Year’s Eve puck drop at 6 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
