Moose Jaw Warriors forward Atley Calvert has put together an impressive campaign for his hometown team, and now he’s part of the record books.
Calvert, 19, set a new record for most goals scored in a single season by a Moose Jaw-born player as the Warriors battled to a 4-3 victory over the Swift Current Broncos at the Moose Jaw Events Centre on Friday night.
Calvert scored his 34th goal of the season with 2:05 to play in the second period, breaking the former mark of 33 set by David Bararuk in the 2001-02 Western Hockey League campaign.
“It’s obviously pretty cool, but the important thing is we won tonight and got a big two points,” the former Moose Jaw Minor Hockey and Prairie Hockey Academy standout said after the contest. “I just try and be a good role model for the little kids out there watching, because at one point that was me. So I do what I can do to be a good role model and maybe they can learn something from me along the way and some day come along and smash my record.”
As one might expect, Calvert spent many a night taking in games at the Civic Centre and Mosaic Place while growing up, eventually emerging as a star player for PHA in their inaugural Canadian Sport School Hockey League season. That led to the Warriors listing and signing the undrafted Calvert prior to the 2019-20 campaign, and the rest is history.
“As a little kid you grow up just enjoying playing the game and I try and do that every day,” Calvert said. “Then watching the Warriors growing up, playing for your hometown team and doing something like this, it’s pretty cool,”
Of course, the Warriors had a game to win on Friday night in addition to creating a legacy, and they turned in a good if somewhat dicey performance at times on their way to their second-straight win.
“They’re a desperate club, they’re playing for a playoff spot and we’re just trying to round out our game more,” Calvert said. “So we’ll take the two points, take the positives and learn from it and put together a better effort tomorrow in Swift.”
The Warriors got a bit of puck luck on their opening goal, with Cosmo Wilson’s point shot ringing off the post and finding Tate Schofer all alone at the right side of the net, with his shot going top shelf for the opening marker at 14:26 of the first.
Swift Current received a break of their own at 3:10 of the second period and would tie the game. Caleb Wyrostock was the beneficiary of a scramble in front of the net, with the puck finding him alone in the slot and Warriors goaltender Jackson Unger on the ice. A shot through traffic later and it was 1-1.
The tie didn’t last long.
Warriors forward Martin Rysavy forced a turnover in the Swift Current zone and would beat Broncos goaltender Joey Rocha with a shot five-hole only 1:14 after Wyrostock’s marker.
Swift Current started to control the zone time as the period progressed and they’d be rewarded with the tying goal with 8:54 to play. Brady Birnie broke in on the rush down the right wing and would laser a shot top-shelf glove side from the face-off circle and make it a 2-2 game.
That set the stage for Calvert’s milestone late in the second. A Ryder Korczak feed from the boards into the slot set things up, and Calvert would beat Rocha with a shot low to set the franchise record.
Korczak then gave the Warriors a 4-2 lead, forcing a turnover in the Broncos zone and getting a shot off that snuck through Rocha’s five hole 5:05 into the third, but Swift Current’s Josh Filmon would get that once back 34 seconds later to once again make it a one-goal game.
The Warriors ran into penalty trouble in the final six minutes of the contest, including a 35-second five-on-three man advantage for the Broncos with 3:57 to play in regulation, but Moose Jaw would be able to kill off both penalties.
Unger made a handful of big saves to help preserve the Warriors lead as Swift Current pressed for the tying goal, finishing with 36 stops on the night. Rocha capped his evening with 20 saves.
The win had an extra tone of positivity to it as it marked another step in the right direction after enduring a trio of tough losses immediately following the WHL’s indefinite suspension of four key players.
“I think we’re just taking it day-by-day and trying to find our game here,” Calvert said. “We’re trying to build in the last 10 or so games before the playoffs, trying to get feeling good about ourselves and feeling good about our game.”
The Warriors improved to 35-19-0-3 with the win and are now seven points up on likely first-round playoff opponent Lethbridge for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. Moose Jaw also sits six points back of Saskatoon for third.
Next action for the Warriors is Saturday night when they finish off the weekend home-and-home in Swift Current.
