MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- The Moose Jaw Warriors closed out their Western Hockey League pre-season with a much-needed win on Saturday night.
The Warriors scored three goals in the second period and went on to a 4-2 victory over the Swift Current Broncos at the Moose Jaw Events Centre, giving the local squad their first win in their final game of the exhibition campaign.
And while wins and losses aren’t important at this time of year, the victory was an important confidence builder after the Warriors had gone winless in their previous three outings, including an 8-2 defeat at the hands of the Broncos on Friday night.
“That’s big, that’s what we wanted,” said Warriors defenceman Aiden Ziprick, who had two assists and was named the game's second star. “This doesn’t really matter, but coming out for next weekend and starting the season off, that’s what it’s all about. This is a big stepping stone and it was a good one for us to build on.”
When the preseason began, Moose Jaw head coach Mark O’Leary was more concerned about seeing development from his crew as opposed to straight-up wins and losses. Even in the short four-game span over two weeks, the team is already seeing improvement, something that Ziprick hopes will lead to a solid opening weekend of the regular season.
“It was good, obviously the pre-season didn’t start like we wanted, but it’s all about building as a team and over the last couple of days we’ve built chemistry and it showed tonight,” the 19-year-old defenceman said. “We were the better team the whole game, so I think we’re ready to go for next Friday and we’re looking forward to it.”
After their first-period struggles on Friday night -- Moose Jaw trailed 4-0 after the opening 20 minutes -- the Warriors got off to a far better start in the rematch.
Brayden Schuurman picked up a turnover in the high slot and put a shot through traffic top shelf glove side to give the Warriors a 1-0 lead only 1:47 into the proceedings.
Moose Jaw continued to carry the play, holding the Broncos without a shot through the first 13 minutes, including the first Swift Current power play of the game.
All told, the Warriors would outshoot the Broncos 15-3 in the period and hold them to one scoring chance, that coming on a one-on-one rush in the final minute. While things tightened up as the game progressed, finding a way to shut down Swift Current after giving up eight goals the night before was important.
“Shutting them down defensively is a big part of the game, and once you get that lead you don’t want to make silly plays or anything, you want to lock down and give them nothing and I thought we did that very well,” Ziprick said.
Owen Berge extended the lead to 2-0 only 53 seconds into the second period, beating his man to the outside and cutting across the net before slipping the puck home five hole on Broncos goaltender Matthew Kieper.
Swift Current would get that one right back, though, with Connor Gabriel getting a step on his man going up the ice and putting a shot in close past Warriors netminder Jackson Unger 1:41 later.
Deegan Kinniburgh extended the Warriors lead to 3-1 with 4:41 to play in the second period, forcing a turnover in the neutral zone while shorthanded and going in all alone before flipping the puck past Kieper blocker side.
The Warriors received their third power play of the game with just over a minute to play in the second and quickly made it count. Lynden Lakovic got a pass off in close cross-crease to Pavel McKenzie, and he’d make no mistake banging it home only 10 seconds into the minor.
There things stood until 5:52 remained in the contest, when Ty Coupland had his shot from the high slot deflect off a defender and into the net.
That was the end of scoring on the night, as Unger finished with 23 saves and was his usual steady self, while Kieper stopped 19 shots in 28:16 and Joey Rocha turned aside 12 in 31:44.
The Warriors now turn their attention to the Brandon Wheat Kings and their season opener in Brandon on Friday night, followed by their home opener and WHL championship banner raising against the Prince Albert Raiders on Saturday.
Game time on Saturday is 7 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
