Moose Jaw Warriors forward Riley Niven had spent the better part of five months watching his team play from the stands thanks to a shoulder injury and naturally hoped his return to the line-up on Wednesday night would lead to a solid result.
And while Moose Jaw would get off to a great start against the Brandon Wheat Kings, they’d have few answers as the game progressed, eventually dropping a 7-3 decision in Western Hockey League action at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
The Warriors fell to 35-21-0-3 with the loss and remain in fourth place in the Eastern Conference.
Regardless of the result, getting back into the swing of things was most definitely a positive for Niven, especially after so much time off.
“For not playing in five months, it felt like I hadn’t been out of the line-up and it was good to get back out there and battle with your best pals,” the 19-year-old forward said. “It’s been a long time, but I’ve been working with Brooksy (athletic therapist Brooke Kosolofski) as well as Kinger (assistant coach Scott King) and (assistant coach) Gord (Burnett) on the ice. They’ve helped me out big time and stuck with it and I can’t thank them enough for that.”
Niven was first injured against Winnipeg back on Winnipeg on Oct. 8 and made his initial return in Prince George on Nov,. 23, only to reaggravate the injury and sit out again until Wednesday night.
“After Christmas break when she still wasn’t feeling the greatest, I went to Calgary and got injections done there, which helped out a lot,” Niven said. “Then I had a bit of setback in practice a couple of weeks ago, but we’re back going again, so it’s good.”
The Warriors didn’t take long to get things going Wednesday, as Martin Rysavy forced a turnover along the right boards, Jagger Firkus picked up the puck at the top of the faceoff circle and wired a shot home blocker side only 1:06 into the game.
Brandon tied the game up with 7:46 gone, taking advantage of their first power play in the process. Nate Danielson got off a shot from the point that Jackson Unger could ony get a piece of five-hole, and the puck would trickle over the line to make it a 1-1 contest.
The Wheat Kings continued to carry the play from there, and would take the lead midway through the period. Anthony Wilson outduelled a Warrior for the puck along the boards in the Moose Jaw zone, and would find Rylen Roesma streaking in all alone for the go-ahead goal.
Roesma struck again just over a minute later to make it 3-1, and Brandon was off to the races.
“We just didn’t stick to the gameplan, getting pucks deep and forcing their D to create turnovers and work it into the slot,” Niven said of the Warriors’ performance. “We started off pretty hot but we kind of drifted away from that play and it cost us as the game went on.”
The goals came fast and furious early in the second period.
Martin Rysavy got things going with a brilliant individual effort -- breaking into the Brandon zone, beating the defender to the outside, cutting across the front of the net and putting a shot upstairs to get Moose Jaw back within one.
The ray of hope didn’t last long.
Former AAA Warriors standout Quinn Mantei scored for Brandon 1:31 later, marking the end of the night for Unger after allowing four goals on 20 shots in 22:59. Justen Maric took over and didn’t fare much better initially, as Ben Thornton -- also coming back from injury and playing his first game since mid-October -- made it a 5-2 Brandon game three minutes later. Anthony Wilson then added Brandon’s sixth goal with 10:36 gone.
The Warriors got one back before the period was out, and they needed every second of it to get the job done: Firkus scored his second of the game as the buzzer went, and a quick goal review later, it was found that the Seattle Kraken prospect had put the puck in with 0.4 seconds to play.
Roersma fniished off his hat trick with 10:10 gone in the third period to close out scoring.
Maric finished with 14 saves in 37:01 of work, while Nicholas Jones had 25 stops for the Wheat Kings.
The Warriors are back in action on Friday night when they travel to Saskatoon before returning home to face the Prince Albert Raiders on Saturday night. Game time is 7 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
