Swift Current, SK — A two-goal swing at the end of the first period ended up being too much to overcome for the Moose Jaw Warriors.
The Warriors lost 5-2 to the Swift Current Broncos to open up the team’s eight-game road trip on Monday night.
“There was a lot of instances where we just seemed disconnected and just caused breakdowns throughout the neutral zone, bit of a sloppy game and ended up costing us,” Warriors assistant coach Curtis Pereverzoff said.
The loss gives the Warriors’ back-to-back losses for the first time since the middle of December and drops the team’s record to 17-4 in the last 21 games since Dec. 16.
Brayden Schuurman and Owen Berge scored in the loss, while Jackson Unger made 22 saves.
The Broncos opened the scoring when Owen Pickering found the back of the net 9:44 into the first.
The Warriors answered right back only 32 seconds later when Schuurman buried a feed from Rilen Kovacevic for his 16th of the season to tie the game.
With the game tied at 1-1 late in the first period, the Broncos struck for two goals from Brady Birnie and Connor Hvidston in the final 1:52 of the frame to take the lead.
The Warriors cut the lead down to one only 2:50 into the second period when Berge blasted home his second of the season.
A goal by Ty Coupland scored early in the third to put the Broncos back in front by two and Ryan McCleary scored into an empty net with just over two minutes to go in the game.
“We left a little bit on the table there in the first period,” Pereverzoff said. “We hit a couple of posts, had some really good grade ‘A’ looks and opportunities, but credit to our guys, we stuck with it in the second period and came out strong, had some really good o-zone possession, but unfortunately weren’t able to stick to that for a full 60.”
The Warriors’ special teams couldn’t get the job done in the loss, going 0-for-3 on the power play and 0-for-1 on the penalty kill.
The Warriors will now look to regroup heading into Lethbridge on Wednesday to take on the Hurricanes.