The Moose Jaw Warriors might not have come out on the winning end of their first game of the Western Hockey League pre-season on Friday night at the Moose Jaw Events Centre, but that wasn’t of much concern for the team’s coaching staff..
When you have as many flashes of brilliance from both young and old players alike while having a large portion of your veteran core sitting in the stands, dropping a one-goal decision in your opening contest isn’t the end all to be all.
The Swift Current Broncos used a five-minute major early in the second period to take control of the frame and put up four goals before eventually hanging on for a 5-4 win in the first exhibition game of the 2022-23 campaign for both clubs.
“I think our mindset is just on the process, for sure,” Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary told Marc Smith on the IKS post-game show. “There are lots of good things to take from tonight’s game, but it’s certainly not the result you want. Any time you’re competing you’re trying to win the game and there’s no question about that.
“But I thought that for two out of three periods it was really good. The turning point was the five-minute major for sure and we need to learn from that as well. But as a coaching staff we were really pleased with a lot of individual efforts and really as a team starting to show how we want to play.”
One thing immediately noticeable from the drop of the puck is how dominant the Warriors veterans are capable of being. Defenceman Denton Mateychuk and forward Jagger Firkus were almost unspeakably good at times, with the former controlling the play any time he was on the ice and finishing with three assists, while Firkus scored a pair of nifty goals and was a threat every shift. Defenceman Lucas Brenton -- who scored the opening goal -- also looked solid moving the puck while making plenty of solid decisions on the back end.
Then there were the youngsters. Rookie Ben Riche had an assist on the night after putting together a solid training camp, while defenceman Marek Howell and forward Max Finley also turned heads with their play, just to name a few.
“I thought the young guys did exactly what they were supposed to do,” O’Leary said. “They worked as hard as they could, they competed and they got their feet wet in the Western Hockey League. Coming into a game like that, it’s exciting, but at the same time it’s nervewracking, we’re well aware of that and I felt as the game went on, and certainly in the third period, they were very good. They were playing the way we want to do, they weren’t perfect tonight by any means but there are lots of good things we’re going to watch again tomorrow and some things we’re going to clean up.”
Moose Jaw took a 2-1 lead out of the first period but the five-minute major for checking from behind to Robert Baco swung momentum firmly Swift Current’s way.
Brady Birnie scored his second of the game, Grayson Burzynski, Josh Filmon and Tyson Yaremko had single markers in the period as the Broncos took a 5-2 lead.
Firkus got one back before the second period was out, Tate Schofer scored a shorthanded goal early in the third and the Warriors had a slew of chances to tie things up but just couldn’t find the marker they needed.
“Being down by a couple goals in the third period, I thought our guys handled it really well,” O’Leary said. “You’re down by two going into the third, nothing changes. You find a way to show effort and compete and I thought we did that in the terms of races and battles all over the ice. I thought we won most of them, gave us a chance and young guys and old guys, they were all in the mix.”
Jonah Tonhauser made 13 saves in 29:15 of work for the Warriors, Justen Maric had nine stops in the remaining 29:50. Reid Dyck went the distance and faced 28 shots for Swift Current.
Now for the biggest caveat of all -- who didn’t play for Moose Jaw on Friday night. NHL drafted defencemen Cole Jordan and Max Wanner along with veteran Matthew Gallant were in the stands, as were standout forwards Brayden Yager, Josh Hoekstra, Atley Calvert and Eric Alarie, with the latter two off to NHL rookie tournaments in the near future. Overage goaltender Connor Ungar and veteran Jackson Unger were also among those who sat out.
The two teams are right back in action on Saturday night in Swift Current.
Next home action for the Warriors is Friday night when they host the Brandon Wheat Kings, with game time 7 p.m. at Moose Jaw Events Centre.
