Throughout their recent run of Western Hockey League success, the Moose Jaw Warriors haven’t had to make a lot of in-game comebacks.
Saturday night at Mosaic Place was a different story -- but still an impressive one at that.
The Warriors twice overcame two-goal deficits and Brayden Yager would eventually score the game-winner with 37 seconds remaining as Moose Jaw picked up a 6-5 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings.
The Warriors improved to 31-19-3-2 with the win and continue to hold down fourth place in the Eastern Conference, eight points back of Red Deer and three points up on Saskatoon.
“I think that was a really important one for our group,” said Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary. “There was a playoff atmosphere and I think the biggest thing with playoffs is there are going to be momentum shifts and highs and lows and you have to have the discipline to stick with your game, regardless of the situation. We certainly did that tonight.”
For the second night in a row, Riley Niven got the Warriors on the board first, with his game-opening goal coming 5:52 into the proceedings. Atley Calvert did the set-up work stripping the puck off a Brandon defender at the side of the net and finding Niven with a pass out to the left face-off circle. With a wide-open net to shoot at, the 17-year-old rookie made no mistake with his fourth goal of the season.
The Warriors had plenty of chances to extend their lead in the opening 20 minutes as the Wheat Kings were hit with three straight minor penalties, but Moose Jaw was unable to generate sustained pressure on any of the opportunities.
Brandon, on the other hand, received their first power play in the final minute of the period and needed only 13 seconds to get on the board, with Chad Nychuk tying the game 1-1 at the 19:30 mark.
Landon Roberts and Ridly Greig scored for Brandon 1:40 apart midway through the second, but the Warriors would get both of those back before the period was out.
Yager scored his first goal in seven games with 4:47 remaining in the frame, and his power play marker was followed by Tate Schofer 1:33 later when he tipped Majid Kaddoura’s point shot past Brandon’s Ethan Kruger.
The tie wouldn’t last the period, though, as Nychuk scored his second of the game two minutes after Schofer’s marker, with his wide-open shot from the slot beating Carl Tetachuck blocker side.
Greig then restored Brandon’s two-goal lead 11 seconds into the third, with his backhand from the slot finding its way home through traffic.
In games earlier this season, that might have been the death knell for the Warriors, a sign things weren’t going to go their way. But this is a wildly different team than the one that surrendered big leads and lost tight games back in October and November, and they just never stopped coming.
“I think we've built that,” O’Leary said. “It's like any muscle, you go build enough resiliency and prove to yourself that you can come back and use that in the future and I think that's what we're doing right now. We've been a resilient group and been able to get back up fast and we did that again and again tonight.”
Josh Hoekstra started the second comeback with 4:07 gone in the period, tapping a loose puck at the top of the crease past Kruger after Robert Baco rang a hard shot off the post.
And 32 seconds after that, the game was tied 5-5, this time when Eric Alarie outduelled a Brandon defender in front of the net and tipped Daemon Hunt's point shot into the Wheat Kings net.
That set the stage for Yager in the game’s final minute.
Jagger Firkus worked the puck from the left corner back to Yager into the slot, and the 16-year-old standout would make no mistake, ripping a shot top corner glove side for the game-winning goal.
The win snapped a two-game mini losing streak for the Warriors and sees the local club looking to keep things going in a week’s time when they host the Calgary Hitmen on Friday, Mar. 11 at Mosaic Place.
“We're fighting for playoff standings and I think for me personally, it makes for a long week when you finish with a loss,” O’Leary said. “So it's a good way to end the weekend and we’’ll be looking forward to the next one.”
