The Moose Jaw Warriors didn’t get off to the greatest of starts on Wednesday night against the Lethbridge Hurricanes, but their finish was just fine.
Despite falling behind 2-0 early in the second period, the Warriors just kept at it and were rewarded with six straight goals before going on to a 6-3 victory in Western Hockey League action at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
The Warriors improved to 25-15-0-2 with their eighth win in their last nine games and remain six points back of the Medicine Hat Tigers for second place in the Eastern Conference.
Given the firepower on their top two lines, it’s easy to assume those crews are going to lead the way most nights. But it was the third line that shone Wednesday, as Brayden Schuurman, Martin Rysavy and Rilen Kovacevic combined for three key goals as the Warriors completed their comeback and pulled away.
Schuurman would cap his night with a goal and three points, while Rysavy had a pair of helpers and Kovacevic an assist. More than that, they generated a ton of chances all night and were an unmistakable thorn in Lethbridge’s side.
“We’ve been getting chemistry the last couple of weeks here, getting Kov in and me and Martin playing together again, i think that’s been huge,” Schuurman said of their line’s contributions in recent outings. “We’ve been hanging out together off ice and that builds lots of chemistry and now we’re really starting to put it together in games.”
Schuurman would naturally have liked to have seen a better start, as the Hurricanes took a 2-0 lead 4:52 into the second period, but at the same time, there’s a sense of inevitability with this edition of the Warriors.
“Obviously that’s not an ideal way to start the game, but we know we’re a resilient group and we’re going to push back,” Schuurman said of how the contest played out. “It’s not over when we’re down a couple goals, we’re going to keep pushing and it’ll eventually happen and that’s how it went tonight.”
The Hurricanes took advantage of their first power play of the game with 10:06 gone in the first, with Miguel Marques putting a shot from the slot blocker side past a screened Evan May, who made his debut in the Warriors goal.
Kovacevic had a great chance to tie the game four minutes into the second when he eluded a defender at the blueline and walked into the slot untouched, only to put his shot off the crossbar.
The Hurricanes made it 2-0 not long after when Sean Tschigerl wired a loose puck home from the high slot.
Moose Jaw got on the board with 7:29 to play in the second, and it was the product of a power play that will be tough to stop in the second half of the season.
After the Warriors had a couple of great chances earlier in the man advantage, Jagger Firkus would get off a shot from the slot that deflected off of Matthew Savoie and in. Brayden Yager picked up the second assist.
Less than two minutes later, it was a tie game.
Denton Mateychuk continued his post-World Juniors goal-scoring ways with his third goal in as many games, toe-dragging into the slot and ripping a shot top shelf blocker side.
Moose Jaw then took their first lead 55 seconds into the third. Rysavy sent a pass from behind the net out to the point for Kalem Parker and his shot would go off a Lethbridge defender in front and in.
The Warriors’ third goal was the product of nothing more than good old-fashioned hard work.
Kovacevic outraced a Lethbridge defender into the corner and got a pass out front to Schuurman all alone in front, and he’d tuck the puck around Brady Smith for the 4-2 lead with 7:59 gone in the third.
“Credit to Kov for winning that race and getting it out front to me, all I had to do was put it home and that’s credit to him for making that great play,” Schuurman said.
The Hurricanes ran into a bit of penalty trouble midway through the third, and the Warriors made the most of a two-man advantage with 10:39 to play. Atley Calvert redirected a pass to the front of the net from Firkus for his 25th of the season.
Just over a minute after that marker, it was 6-2. Yager went in untouched from the right face-off circle and ripped a shot top shelf blocker side for his 20th of the campaign.
Dylan Sydor got one back for Lethbridge with 3:56 to play, but that’s as close as they’d get.
With two assists, Firkus now has 32 goals and 77 points in 37 games this season and has retaken the Western Hockey League scoring lead.
May wasn’t overly tested in the Warriors goal and finished with 25 saves on the night, while the Warriors had 43 shots on Smith.
Moose Jaw is back in action on Friday when they travel to Swift Current before hosting the Broncos in the back half of the home-and-home on Saturday. Game time is 7 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
