MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- Another night, another close game and another narrow loss for the Moose Jaw Warriors.
The Seattle Thunderbirds scored three goals in 3:09 late in the first period and would go on to an 4-1 victory in Western Hockey League action at the Moose Jaw Events Centre on Tuesday night.
The Warriors fell to 3-7-2-0 with their fifth-straight loss and have fallen to 10th place in the Eastern Conference. Seattle improved to 5-6-1-0 and moved into a tie for seventh in the Western Conference.
Things were fairly quiet in the early going, as neither team had more than a couple chances i the first seven minutes.
Moose Jaw’s Lynden Lakovic had one of the better opportunities when he broke in from the corner and across the front of the Seattle net, with goaltender Scott Ratzlaff making the pad save. The Thunderbirds’ Metaj Pekar had a chance seconds later at the other end of the ice, ringing a one-timer from Nathan Pilling off the crossbar.
The Warriors received their first power play of the game 8:28 into the first, but their recent struggles on the man advantage continued. Moose Jaw failed to get a shot on goal, and were 1-for-17 in their last 18 opportunities when things were said and done on the night.
Moments later, Seattle scored the opening goal of the game.
Arjun Bawa went hard to the net down the middle of the ice and redirected a perfect pass from the wing by Braeden Cootes top shelf glove side with 6:19 to play in the first.
Brayden Holberton then made it a 2-0 game two minutes later, putting home a rebound off a shot in close as Warriors goaltender Josh Banini scrambled to make the save.
The goals kept coming for Seattle, as 1:09 after Holberton’s marker, they scored again. Sawyer Mynio got off a deflection on a shot from the point by Tai Riley and the puck would find the open side of the Warriors net.
The second period was largely uneventful, with Banini the busier of the two goaltenders, but Moose Jaw would get on the board late in the frame.
Connor Schmidt took a pass into the high slot from Brayden Yager and found some open ice in the right faceoff circle before blasting a slapshot home blocker side with 19.1 seconds remaining.
Moose Jaw got off to a good start in the final period and had a handful of chances in the first five minutes, with two of those coming in close from Ethan Hughes that Ratzlaff was able to get a piece of.
They’d be unable to find a way to beat Ratzlaff through the remainder of the game, though, and Pekar would score into the empty net with 3:47 remaining to finish things off -- the seventh empty-net goal Moose Jaw has given up this season.
Banini capped his night with 36 saves on the night, while Ratzlaff stopped 23.
The Warriors will now head out on their B.C. Division road swing, beginning Friday when they’re in Kelowna to face the Rockets.
