MOOSE JAW -- The Moose Jaw Warriors once again found a way to make things close against one of the Eastern Conference favourites, but a pair of power play goals early in the third period proved to be the difference on Wednesday night.
The Calgary Hitmen scored twice on the man advantage in the first eight minutes of the final frame and would go on to a 6-4 victory in Western Hockey League action at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
Moose Jaw fell to 10-28-4-2 and remain in 11th place in the Conference, while Calgary improved to 26-12-3-2 and have the second-best record, a point back of first-place Medicine Hat.
“I know this is a very good team and certainly I respect how good they are, they can make plays, they're fast,” Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary said of the Hitmen.
“But when you're in the third period and you're down by a goal, the power play goals that they got, they were killers. I just thought we did a lot of good things throughout the game to keep it close. To play a team like that and be close in the end, it hurts. But I was happy with the bounce back. We weren't happy with our last game against Edmonton (a 7-0 loss on home ice). I thought our effort and compete was much better here tonight.”
It was another case of the Warriors being able to stick close with a team before having things get away from them late in the game. Fewer mistakes at crucial times could fix that, O’Leary said.
“Teams are where they are in the standings for a reason,” he continued. “When you play enough games over time, that sorts itself out and it's the same thing within a game. Sometimes it's other teams finding their game throughout the game, sometimes it's just a matter of mistakes catching up to us.
"Tonight I thought the turnovers on the wall and on our exits hurt us. We got away with some early on in the game but eventually, those things come back to haunt you. You do that against good teams, they're going to find a way to make plays.”
The situation is certainly made a touch more difficult given the huge amount of turnover the Warriors had in the lead-up to the trade deadline. With so many new faces, the team is slowly gaining the kind of familiarity that can help create wins -- much as it did with the tight-knit crew last season.
“We've had some good practices now with the new faces, that's the way we look at it,” O’Leary said. “It's a refresher for everybody in terms of system play and playing with structure. For the new guys, just getting them on the same page and getting some reps with the new faces for them as well. There's lots of hockey to play and lots of time to get better as players individually and get better as a team.”
The Hitmen got off to a great start and were outshooting the Warriors 5-0 when they scored their first goal three minutes into the contest. Tanner Howe got off a one-timer from the slot from Ben Kindel, giving Calgary the quick and early lead.
Moose Jaw began to get pressure as the period progressed and it paid off with 5:39 to play in the period. Ethan Semeniuk won a faceoff in the Calgary zone back to Owen Berge, and his shot through a screen would elude Hitmen goaltender Daniel Hauser and tie the game.
The Warriors then took their first lead early in the second, with Krzysztof Macias pulling the puck out of a scramble off a face-off and firing the puck home with 5:09 gone in the frame.
Calgary would get that one back quickly, as Ben Kindel broke in on the rush and tied the game up only 1:36 after the go-ahead goal.
The Hitmen then regained the lead at the 10:22 mark, with Kindel scoring his 26th of the season by outduelling a defender in front of the net and popping home a rebound off a shot in close.
Only 1:18 later, it was once again tied, and immediately after another face-off in the Calgary zone. Pavel McKenzie did the honours this time, grabbing a pass back off a Semeniuk face-off win and finding the back of the net through traffic.
A former Warrior would restore Calgary’s lead before the period was out. Kalem Parker got off a shot from the point that went through a screen and found the top corner glove side with 5:51 to play, making it a 4-3 game.
A power play early in the third period gave the Hitmen a chance to increase their lead and they’d get the job done. Carson Birnie pounced on a rebound off a partially blocked shot by Ethan Moore and was able to poke it past Warriors goaltender Matthew Hutchison with 1:32 gone in the frame.
Another Calgary power play led to their sixth goal, with Sawyer Mynio getting off a one-timer and making it 6-3 with 7:58 elapsed in the period.
The Warriors didn’t get their first shot on net in the third until the 10:45 mark, but it would result in a goal. Eric Johnston picked up a loose puck in front of Hauser and tucked it around the sprawling goaltender to get Moose Jaw back within a pair.
That would close out scoring and Calgary had their win.
Hutchison finished with 39 saves, Hauser stopped 16.
The Warriors are back in action Friday when they travel to Edmonton to face the Oil Kings.
