The Moose Jaw Warriors couldn’t capitalize on an early lead as they dropped their second straight to open the preseason.
In front of a sold-out crowd at the Southland Co-op Centre, the Warriors dropped a 4-2 game to the Regina Pats on Saturday night.
“The crowd was great, sometimes exhibition needs a little bit of that, a little bit of juice in the air,” Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary said.
“I know they were excited about the game again this year, it was a good atmosphere – during the game and before the game – you don’t see a lot of that in exhibition schedule.”
Lynden Lakovic opened the scoring just over two minutes into the game and Pavel McKenzie tied the game late in the third period.
The Pats pulled away late with a pair of goals to take both games in the weekend home-and-home set.
“There was some good things, similar to last night,” O’Leary said. “I thought we had some problems in our own end breaking the puck out, whether it was going back for pucks under pressure or pucks along the boards, those are areas that we can continue to work on and that’s what this time of year is all about.”
The Warriors’ 2024 top pick Cohen Williams made his WHL preseason debut in the game.
The 15-year-old said he felt like he can take a lot away from the game.
“I think I did alright, stuff to build on, some mistakes, but can always go up from here,” Williams said.
“It’s a good league and I want to play two, three years with this organization.”
O’Leary said he felt like Williams handled himself well in his debut.
“He was good,” he said. “There was a couple of breakouts that really stood out with his poise and finding our centermen in good spots.”
Lakovic opened the scoring on a nice feed from Brayden Schuurman just 2:34 into the game.
That goal held up until the Pats tied the game with a power play goal from Anthony Wilson early in the second.
Zackary Shantz put Regina in front only 2:40 into the third period, but the Warriors were able to answer back when McKenzie ripped home his first of the preseason with 8:18 gone in the frame.
Regina capitalized on their second power play just past the midway point of the period when Logan Peskett scored to make it 3-2.
Kristian Lacelle added the insurance only 50 seconds later.
“Once we got going north with numbers, I thought we looked really good,” O’Leary said. “We supported the puck really well tonight, in the offensive zone, you want five guys involved and we did a pretty good job of that.”
The Warriors were outshot 35-22 by Regina in the loss. The Pats had the only two power plays of the game, finishing 2-for-2.
Moose Jaw will close out the preseason next weekend with a home-and-home set against the Swift Current Broncos.