For all their offensive potential, the Moose Jaw Warriors haven’t had a lot of games where points have come easily through the first 20 games of the Western Hockey League season.
On Tuesday night against the Saskatoon Blades, that all changed -- and at a good time for the local squad too boot, as they’d need almost every one of their near double-digit goal total to find the win.
Jagger Firkus had a hat trick and five points while Dakota McIntosh picked up his first three points in the WHL as the Warriors battled to a 9-6 victory over the Blades at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
The win sees the Warriors improve to 12-8-0-1, good enough for third place in the Eastern Conference, one point back of the Blades for second and three back of Medicine Hat for first overall in the WHL.
“We started out real hot and they had a pushback there early on us, but the boys didn’t quit at all,” said McIntosh, who scored his first two WHL goals in the second period. “The message between periods was that we had to keep going because we knew the goals we were going to come. So at the end of the day we battled through some adversity and we got a big two points tonight.”
McIntosh’s first marker came on a pass to the slot from behind the net by Matthew Gallant and was his first in four games since joining the team from AJHL Blackfalds.
“The first four games the chances were there and they just weren’t going in, so it feels really nice to not only get the first, but the second as well, and it’s great to get that monkey off the back “ he said. “Now I’m looking forward to keeping the momentum going Friday (in Saskatoon).”
Lynden Lakovic and Ethan Semeniuk got things started for the Warriors with goals less than three minutes apart early in the first, but Misha Volotovski and Egor Sidorov scored goals 43 seconds apart late in the period to tie things up. Brayden Yager would restore the lead with 13 seconds left and Moose Jaw went into the break up 3-2.
The second period saw the two teams combine for eight goals in a back-and-forth track meet.
Sidorov tied the game at 4:07, MacIntosh made it 4-3 at 6:12, Brandon Lisowsky again tied the game at 8:29 and 1:40 later, Firkus and McIntosh had scored to give the Warriors a 6-4 edge. Only 2:43 after that, it was all tied up again thanks to goals from Saskatoon’s Charlie Wright and Sidorov’s hat trick marker, but Firkus restored the lead for the final time with 42 seconds to play in the period.
Neither team scored until time ran down in the final frame, where Firkus capped his hat trick with an empty netter with 1:41 to play. Martin Rysavy added a second empty netter 1:10 later.
Yager capped his night with three points, while Brayden Schuurman had a pair of helpers.
McIntosh would naturally liked to have seen a more comfortable win, but the sheer stick-to-it-iveness the Warriors showed was a positive in itself.
“It’s a bit frustrating, but it gives us that extra motivation out there to come back and get the next one,” McIntosh said of the mindset on the bench as the game progressed. “Tonight the guys did a great job of that, they kept fighting back and getting the lead back and at the end of the day we played a pretty good game.”
Jackson Unger picked up the win in goal and had 33 saves while Austin Elliott started for the Blades and gave up five goals on 21 shots in 30:00 before giving way to Evan Gardner, who played the final 28:16 and faced 17 shots.
Firkus’ big night saw him become the first player in the WHL to 20 goals, with 21 goals and 40 points by the time everything was said and done Tuesday. His 40 points in 19 games not only lead the WHL in scoring, but the entire Canadian Hockey League.
The Warriors are back in action on Friday night when they travel to Saskatoon to face the Blades. Next home action is Saturday night when the Edmonton Oil Kings are in town. Game time is 7 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
