Moose Jaw, SK — On one of the biggest nights of the Moose Jaw Warriors’ schedule, the team put together a stellar performance to cap off the night.
The Warriors skated to a 7-3 win over the Edmonton Oil Kings on Hockey Fights Cancer Night in downtown Moose Jaw on Saturday.
“When you consider on a night like this, you start to understand there’s more to life than hockey, a lot of people are battling through a lot of things and especially with Ethan Hughes, it was great to celebrate what he’s gone through and how resilient a guy like he is,” Warriors assistant coach Curtis Pereverzoff said.
“All around, I think everyone was up, was excited and wanted to do this for him tonight.”
Warriors forward Ethan Semeniuk finished with a goal and three points to lead the way for the Warriors in the win.
He said it was special to get the win for Hughes on Hockey Fights Cancer night.
“I’ve had my family members that have had to deal with it, I can’t imagine what it would be like for myself to have gone through that, he’s a strong kid and I’ve got a lot of respect for that,” Semeniuk said.
After falling on Friday in Saskatoon, the Warriors put together a strong bounce back performance with six different goal scorers finding the back of the net in the win.
“Yesterday was fresh in our memory and the game that we had, Edmonton was still on our minds as well, so it’s good to come out and see a performance like that,” Pereverzoff said.
“Edmonton is a very hard working team and that’s something that beat us up in Edmonton was the fact that they just outworked us and we were able to respond to it.”
Pavel McKenzie finished with two goals in the win, opening the scoring 2:48 into the first period and then finishing off the scoring with three seconds to go in regulation.
Semeniuk put the Warriors in front 2-0 midway through the second with a bad-angle shot for his third of the season.
Jagger Firkus followed that up with his league-leading 22nd of the season only 3:04 later to make it 3-0 for Moose Jaw.
Edmonton got on the board late in the second on a goal from Gavin Hodnett.
Early in the third, Denton Mateychuk extended his point streak to 16 games with his sixth of the season and then Brayden Schuurman followed that up only 1:32 later to make it 5-1 for Moose Jaw.
The Oil Kings battled back with goals from Blake Fiddler and Marc Lajoie, but the Warriors sealed the win with goals from Atley Calvert and McKenzie in the final 1:36 of the game.
“After that first period, we were really connected in all zones of the ice,” Semeniuk said. “Coming out clean is a big part of our success, we can have the puck on our stick more and make plays.”
Dimitri Fortin was sharp in the Warriors’ goal, making 34 saves for his second win of the season.
Edmonton outshot Moose Jaw, 37-36, on the night, including 19-12 in the third period. The Oil Kings were 1-for-3 on the power play, while the Warriors went 0-for-1.
The Warriors will be off now until they host the Swift Current Broncos on Friday night at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.