Moose Jaw, SK – The Moose Jaw Warriors fell just short against the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Saturday night.
The Warriors saw their seven-game winning streak come to end with a 3-2 shootout loss to the Hurricanes at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
“It was a tight checking game… that was playoff hockey out there and we’ve got to get used to it pretty quick, but we got a point and we’ll move on, it wasn’t our greatest game,” WHL leading scorer Jagger Firkus said after the game.
Matthew Savoie and Brayden Yager scored for Moose Jaw, while Dimitri Fortin made 25 saves in the loss.
With the single point in the loss, the Warriors have now locked up home ice advantage in the first round of the 2024 Western Hockey League playoffs.
“It was playoff hockey, Lethbridge does a good job of clogging up the neutral zone, they make it real difficult to get inside and that’s what you’re going to face when you face certain teams and they’re good at it,” Warriors associate coach Scott King said.
“We didn’t give them much and I thought Dimitri played well and gave us a chance to win.”
After a scoreless first period, the Warriors opened the scoring when Savoie scored his 28th of the season, finishing off a great feed from Vojtech Port midway through the second.
Moose Jaw extended its lead to 2-0 only 1:33 into the third period when Brayden Yager raced up ice shorthanded on an outlet pass from Firkus and scored his 32nd of the season.
The Hurricanes didn’t go away and Brayden Edwards got Lethbrige on the board 6:53 into the third to make it a one-goal game.
With 5:57 left in regulation, Dylan Sydor tipped home a point shot to tie the game.
Despite chances for the Warriors to retake the lead, the game went to overtime where both teams had opportunities to end the game, but instead a shootout was needed.
Logan Wormald scored the only goal for Lethbridge, while Savoie, Firkus and Denton Mateychuk were stopped for Moose Jaw.
Hurricanes goalie Brady Smith turned away 28 shots in the win.
“It’s the same kind of game against Lethbridge every time we play them, they play hard, they play physical, they make sure you don’t have a lot of time with the puck and you can see they did that tonight,” Firkus said.
“There was plenty of chances that we should have bared down and scored on, but looking back, we were on a good heater there and we got a point, it wasn’t our greatest performance, but we’ve got to move on to play next weekend against a good team in Saskatoon, so we’ve got to get ready for them.”
The Warriors will now look to bounce back when they square off with the Saskatoon Blades in a big home-and-home set next weekend. It starts next Friday in Saskatoon and then shifts to the Hangar next Saturday, get tickets at mjwarriors.ca.