It was a game of momentum swings on Saturday night at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
The momentum didn’t swing in the Moose Jaw Warriors’ favour at the end of the night, as they dropped a 6-3 game to the Prince Albert Raiders.
“Every now and again, you have nights like this,” Warriors forward Atley Calvert said. “We didn’t start the way we wanted to, but at the end of the day, we put 50 shots towards the net, so it’s a step in the right direction.”
The Warriors fell behind 3-0 early in the second, but battled back to tie the game in the third period.
Prince Albert scored three unanswered goals in the second half of the third to pull away for the win.
“We weren’t real good in the first period, but it’s a big hole to dig out of, we played real well in the second and [Prince Albert goalie] Chase Coward was real good tonight,” Warriors associate coach Scott King said.
The Raiders jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first period on goals from Sloan Stanick and Aiden Oiring.
Brayden Dube made it 3-0 just 4:07 into the second period, but the Warriors started to claw back after that.
Harper Lolacher scored his first of the season at 9:22 to get the Warriors on the board.
Calvert followed that up with his fourth of the season with just under four minutes left in the second to make it a one-goal game after two.
Midway through the third, the Warriors struck to tie the game when Lynden Lakovic wired a shot past Coward, making it 3-3 with 10:10 to play.
The tie game didn’t last long as Prince Albert’s Ryder Ritchie scored only 49 seconds later to restore the Raiders’ lead.
Cole Peardon and Niall Crocker added goals later in the third to seal the win.
The Warriors outshot the Raiders 48-38 in the loss.
“It’s disappointing when you have that many looks, but at the end of the day, and you see it all the time when you watch any games, goalies get hot and they’re tough to beat and unfortunately for us, that was the case tonight,” King said.
Dimitri Fortin made 32 saves in his first Western Hockey League start in the Warriors net.
The loss drops the Warriors’ record to 6-4-0-0 this season.
Moose Jaw will look to bounce back on Tuesday night when the Regina Pats come to the Moose Jaw Events Centre. Click here to get tickets!
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