The Moose Jaw Warriors opened their three-game Central Division road trip in pretty much the exact opposite fashion they were hoping for.
The Calgary Hitmen scored three goals before the game was 12 minutes old and never looked back on their way to a 7-1 victory in Calgary on Thursday night.
Hitmen defenceman Tyson Galloway opened scoring 2:42 into the contest, taking a feed from behind the net from David Adaszynski and moving to the top of the right face-off circle before taking a shot through traffic that eluded Carl Tetachuk.
Another breakdown deep in the Warriors zone led to Calgary’s second goal, this time when Riley Fiddler-Schultz forced a turnover at the side of the net in the slot and found Zac Funk in the slot for a shot that beat Tetachuk high glove side with just over 10 minutes gone.
A little over a minute later, the Warriors’ season-long issues with shorthanded goals reared its head once again, this time when Sean Tschigerl scored on a shot from the slot after Fiddler-Schultz outduelled a Moose Jaw defender along the boards and hit him with a perfect pass.
Calgary then made it 4-0 with a power play goal from Tschigerl with 25 seconds remaining in the period, with Fiddler-Schultz picking up his third assist of the frame at the same time.
Things didn’t change when Jackson Unger took over from Tetachuk in the second period, as Cael Zimmerman took advantage of yet another bad break when a wild, spinning pass from Adam Kydd along the boards went off a Warriors defender in front of the net and right to Zimmerman, who made no mistake at 4:29 of the frame.
Brandon Whynott made it 6-0 at the 12:44 mark of the period, and Adaszynski outduelled a Warriors defender and scored while falling to the ice on the rush with 14 seconds to play to make it 7-0 through two.
Logan Doust broke Hitmen goaltender Brayden Peters’ shutout bid with 10:08 remaining in the game, finishing off a solid power play for the Warriors by sweeping home a Brayden Yager rebound from the top of the crease.
Yager and Unger had both returned to the team after having won silver at the Capital City Challenge on Wednesday night.
Tetachuk had 10 saves in taking the loss, Unger stopped 13 shots over the final two periods. The Warriors had 33 shots on Peters.
The contest was a continuation of Calgary’s recent domination of East Division teams, with 24 goals over three games -- a 7-0 win over Saskatoon on Nov. 27, 10-3 win over Regina on Nov. 28 and seven more goals on Wednesday against the Warriors.
Moose Jaw fell to 10-11-1-1 with the loss, Calgary improved to 10-9-0-0.
The Warriors continue the road trip Friday when they take on the Edmonton Oil Kings. Game time is 8 p.m.
