The Moose Jaw Warriors were going to need a superlative effort from their entire line-up if they were going to find a way to deal with the Western Hockey League-leading Winnipeg Ice on Friday night.
It would be an understatement to say that didn’t happen.
Winnipeg would score five times in the first period and go on to a dominating 7-1 victory at the Moose Jaw Events Centre, handing the Warriors their second loss in as many outings.
Moose Jaw fell to 33-18-0-3 and once again find themselves looking in their rearview mirror, with the Lethbridge Hurricanes only five points back of fourth place heading into play on Saturday night.
Of course, there’s a huge caveat to the whole thing -- the Warriors continue to see four of their top players sitting out with indefinite suspensions due to the WHL Standard of Conduct investigation, with goaltender Connor Ungar, defenceman Max Wanner, defenceman Marek Howell and forward Lynden Lakovic all sidelined.
The two teams went through a feeling out process through the first five minutes, but when the Ice found their stride, it didn’t take long for them to get on the scoreboard.
Jonas Woo got things started when his wrist shot from the point found its way through traffic and into the top corner glove side past a screened Jackson Unger 6:53 into the game.
Only 31 seconds later, it was 2-0, as Vladislav Shilo finished off a great individual effort by working his way around a pair of Warriors defenders and tucking a shot around Unger and into the net.
Winnipeg then made it a three-goal lead at 10:06 of the first, with Owen Pederson finishing off a slew of Ice chances in the previous couple of minutes.
The Ice received their first power play with just over seven minutes to play in the period, and Carson Lambos would make the Warriors pay, putting a shot bardown top corner to make it a 4-0 game just as the penalty expired.
That was the end of the night for Unger, and marked the WHL regular-season debut of affiliated player Justen Maric, who had been called up from the SJHL’s Battlefords Stars to fill the vacancy left by Ungar’s suspension.
Unger left the game having allowed four goals on 13 shots in the opening 14:11 of the game.
Carson Latimer would extend Winnipeg’s lead to five goals with just over a minute to play in the first period, and the Ice had their overwhelmingly comfortable lead after the opening 20 minutes.
Matthew Savoie made it 6-0 1:30 into the second period, and while the Warriors were able to close some ground on the shot clock, they had few chances as the frame progressed.
Moose Jaw looked to have snapped Daniel Hauser’s shutout bid with just over six minutes to play in the period, but the goal was immediately waved off for being knocked in with a high stick.
Winnipeg kept coming after that, this time with Ben Zloty finishing off a two-on-one 15:53 into the frame and making it 7-0 Winnipeg.
The Warriors snapped Hauser’s shutout bid with 2:51 remaining in the game, as Brayden Yager threw a puck in the corner to the front of the net and had it bank off a defenceman and in. The goal came on Moose Jaw’s second power play of the game.
Maric finished with 15 saves; the Warriors had 19 shots on Hauser.
All told, only three players in Winnipeg’s line-up would finish without a point.
The contest featured a couple of debuts in the Warriors line-up, as defenceman Sam Borschowa -- who signed his WHL contract earlier in the day -- played his first WHL game, as did forward Max Finley, the younger brother of former Ice standout Jack Finley.
The Warriors are back in action Saturday when they travel to Prince Albert to face the Raiders. Next home action is Tuesday night when they host the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Game time is 7 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
