MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- The Moose Jaw Warriors are back in the win column.
After falling in a shootout and overtime in their previous two games, the Warriors made it three contests in a row with points when they took a 4-0 victory over the Saskatoon Blades in Western Hockey League action at the Moose Jaw Events Centre on Thursday night.
As is always the case with a shutout, the Warriors had outstanding goaltending from start to finish, with veteran netminder Jackson Unger turning aside all 32 shots he faced for his first clean sheet of the season and fifth of his career.
Moose Jaw improved to 5-13-3-1 and closed within two points of the Regina Pats for 10th place in the Eastern Conference. Saskatoon fell to 14-6-1-1 and remain in first in the Conference with their first loss in their last four outings.
“Yeah, that was a good game,” Unger said shortly after being named the game’s first star. “I thought our whole team played a tough 60 minutes tonight, we all battled hard, including myself and we got the result we all wanted.”
The contest was the first since the Warriors made a pair of trades last week, with Keaton Dowhaniuk and Ryder Ellis playing their first games on the Moose Jaw blueline. Both turned in solid showings, with Dowhaniuk even chipping in on the scoreboard with an assist.
“We had some new guys on the D today, and they all did a pretty good job keeping pucks to the outside, so it was good.” Unger said. “All the pucks from the outside are easier to stop, once they get inside it gets a lot harder and the guys did a great job with that all night.”
The first period was largely uneventful, with both Unger and Blades netminder Evan Gardner making a handful of big saves through the first 15 minutes to keep things scoreless.
Moose Jaw would break through before the period was out, though, with Lynden Lakovic taking advantage of a turnover and breaking down his wing on an odd-man rush before putting a shot from the right faceoff circle home 4:47 to play in the opening frame.
Saskatoon carried the play much of the first 10 minutes of the second period, but Unger was on point, and his teammates would give him more of a cushion.
Rilen Kovacevic forced a turnover in the neutral zone and went in all alone on Gardner, ringing a shot off the post and in for the 2-0 lead with 8:37 gone in the frame.
Kovacevic struck again 2:30 later, and it was a product of going hard to the net. Owen Berge found the Warriors overager with a hard pass to the front of the goal, and Kovacevic would get off a shot in close before burying the rebound to give Moose Jaw a 3-0 edge.
There things stood until late in the third period, when Saskatoon pulled Gardner for the extra attacker with four minutes remaining to try and get something going.
The Blades would get a handful of chances, but Unger would make the saves and Max Finley would finish off scoring with 10 seconds remaining with an empty-netter.
Getting the shutout -- especially over a team playing as well as the Blades are in the first half of the season -- was naturally a positive and something Unger hopes the team will be able to build off of.
“I think it gives our team momentum and myself momentum to just keep pushing forward.” Unger said. “We had a bit of a shaky start, but we’re getting our feet under us more and more lately, getting more and more comfortable with each other, and the new guys are fitting right it. So it’s going well right now.”
Gardner finished with 29 saves in the contest.
The Warriors will host their Warriors and Legends Hall of Fame Banquet on Friday night, followed by the Hall of Fame Game on Saturday when the Tri-City Americans are in town. Game time is 7 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
