Throughout their recent run of success, the Moose Jaw Warriors have used a lot of teamwork and grinding effort to score their goals.
On Saturday night in Prince Albert, it was time for some flash-and-dash.
The Warriors used a handful of brilliant individual plays to produce their goals and would go on to a 4-2 victory in Western Hockey League action.
Moose Jaw improved to 29-17-3-2 with the win, giving the local squad points in 13 of their last 14 games, including 12 wins in that span.
More importantly, they moved within a single point of the Red Deer Rebels for third place in the Eastern Conference, though the Rebels have two games in hand.
Matthew Gallant got things going for the Warriors 4:05 into the contest when his slow wrister from the point found itself through all sorts of traffic and past Raiders starter Tikhon Chaika.
Josh Hoekstra extended the Warriors lead to 2-0 as the first period ran down, and if you pay attention to the top goals of the week on www.whl.ca you’ll want to catch the next instalment.
Hoekstra picked up the puck in the neutral zone, broke across the blue line and out duelled a pair of Raiders defenders before putting a shot home blocker side on Chaika with 1:06 to go in the first.
The goal was his third of the season, and happened to come on his 19th birthday.
As if Hoekstra’s goal wasn’t fancy enough, Max Wanner attempted to do him one better eight minutes into the second period.
Jagger Firkus hit Wanner with a feed at the blueline, and the Edmonton Oilers draft pick would put a slick move on a Raiders defender to go in all alone on Chaika before putting a shot home low blocker side.
The three goal lead didn’t last long, though, as Trevor Thurston would score for Prince Albert just over a minute later, taking advantage of a solid effort by Sloan Stadnick to snap Carl Tetachuk’s 70-plus minute shutout streak.
Jagger Firkus restored the comfortable edge with less than a minute remaining in the second, and it was another pretty play. Ryder Korczak broke in on the right wing and fired a perfect pass from face-off dot to face-off dot that Firkus hammered home with a one-timer
Evan Herman got one back for Prince Albert in the third period, but they’d get no closer, and once again, Tetachuk was a major reason.
The overage goaltender continued his impressive play as of late with a handful of impressive one-on-one stops in tight on glorious Raider scoring chances, eventually finishing the game with 23 saves.
Chaika had 26 stops at the other end of the ice.
The Warriors will now have the next week off before hosting the Swift Current Broncos on Friday. Game time is 7 p.m. at Mosaic Place.
