From the drop of the puck to the final whistle, the Moose Jaw Warriors didn’t let up against the Victoria Royals on Wednesday night.
Moose Jaw skated to a 5-0 win over Victoria at the Moose Jaw Events Centre in the first game after the WHL Trade Deadline.
“It was a pretty complete game by us, we liked a lot of the details that we had out there,” Warriors assistant coach Curtis Pereverzoff said. “We knew that Victoria was coming in on a late night, so we wanted to jump on them early, we were able to do that and just kept our foot on the gas.”
The Warriors held the Royals to just 15 shots on the night, making it an easy night for Jackson Unger as he picked up his second shutout of the season and league-leading 20th win this season.
“It starts with getting our guy [Denton Mateychuk] back, our captain, he logs so many minutes for us and plays such a good defensive game,” Warriors forward Rilen Kovacevic said after the game.
Kovacevic led the offensive charge for the Warriors with a goal and three points on the night. He’s now scored in four straight games since coming to Moose Jaw in a trade.
“It’s easy when you get to play with guys like I do,” Kovacevic said on his transition to the Warriors’ lineup.
The Warriors dominated the opening period, outshooting the Royals 18-3 in the frame, but hadn’t found any rewards until the last couple of minutes.
Pavel McKenzie got Moose Jaw on the board with 1:44 left in the first, scoring his tenth of the season.
The Warriors added to their lead 7:58 into the second period when Kalem Parker banked in his fourth of the season.
Moose Jaw made it 3-0 only 3:20 later when Kovacevic broke in and scored his 14th of the season.
Just 6:09 into the third period, Warriors captain Denton Mateychuk would make it a 4-0 game, wiring home his seventh of the season.
Then with 5:54 to go, Brayden Yager slide home his 18th of the season on the power play to make it a 5-0 final.
“There’s been more than a few games where we’ve given up 40 shots, so it’s nice to see a turnaround there… it was a big credit to our guys on our tracking details, finishing and stopping inside and taking away all those seam passes and those pucks that were coming inside,” Pereverzoff said.
“We knew that Victoria was a team that likes to play below the dots and shovel pucks towards the front of the net and I thought both our D and forwards did a good job of coming back hard.”
The Warriors outshot Victoria 40-15 in the win, while going 2-for-5 on the power play and 4-for-4 on the penalty kill for the night.
Moose Jaw is back in action coming up on Saturday night when the team hosts the Vancouver Giants for the Conexus Warriors & Legends Hall of Fame Game at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.