Moose Jaw, SK – The Moose Jaw Warriors delivered a massive counter-punch to the Saskatoon Blades in the second half of their weekend home-and-home series.
Down 3-0 after one, the Warriors scored six unanswered goals to knock off the Blades, 6-3, at the Moose Jaw Events Centre on Saturday night.
“Lears came in and said, ‘We know we can score goals, that’s not the issue that we’re down three goals, it whether we’re willing to work to get the goals back’,” Warriors forward Jagger Firkus said.
“In the second and the third, you could tell that was two of our best periods of the season so far and we wanted to win tonight’s game, so we’re super happy we came out with it.”
The win ended the season series between the two Eastern Conference leaders at three wins each with the Warriors outscoring the Blades 26-23 in the six games.
Moose Jaw also moves seven points clear of Swift Current for second place in the Eastern Conference with three games to go. The Broncos have one game in hand.
“We just had to stick with our game and realize that if we got some pucks in their zone, continued to hound pucks that eventually we’d get rewarded,” Warriors associate coach Scott King said.
“Once we got that one goal, we found our legs and our game and got back to it.”
Firkus had a night to remember on his bobblehead night as he finished with a hat trick and four points to hit the 300-point mark in his Western Hockey League career, joining Theo Fleury, Chad Hinz and Brayden Point as the only players in Warriors’ history to reach the milestone.
The Seattle Kraken prospect also broke the Warriors’ modern franchise record for career hat tricks with his ninth.
“It was a special night, obviously to get a chance to have a bobblehead, you don’t really imagine that as a kid but getting it, you’re super grateful,” Firkus said. “I was out there for warmups and seen the lineup to get the bobblehead and it meant a lot to me to have fans that support me like that.
“There was lots of other things that happened tonight, Dents tied a record, Forts played an unbelievable game, Marty hit 100 points, it was a big team game tonight.”
Matthew Savoie and Brayden Yager had a goal and two points each, while Denton Mateychuk tied the Warriors’ record for career points by a defenceman with an assist, pulling him even with Nathan Paetsch at 212.
Dimitri Fortin came on in relief in the first period and helped backstop the Warriors to the victory, stopping all 24 shots that he faced in his fifth career win.
“He was great, he made a lot of ten-bell saves, he just looked so confident in there,” King said.
“Dimitri is one of those guys that you cheer for because he comes to the rink, doesn’t complain, goes out practices, stays out after to take 1,000 shots with the young guys and so you cheer for guys like that.”
The game didn’t start great for the Warriors as Saskatoon built up a 3-0 lead in the first period on two goals from Easton Armstrong and another from Fraser Minten.
Moose Jaw regrouped in the first intermission and came out firing in the second period.
Yager got the Warriors on the board, wiring home his 33rd of the season, on the power play, just 3:21 into the second.
Firkus broke in and scored his 52nd of the season just past the midway point to make it a one-goal game.
The Warriors flipped the game late in the second when Savoie snapped home his 29th of the season with 1:14 to go in the frame and then only 25 seconds later, Brayden Schuurman lifted in his 20th of the year to give Moose Jaw its first lead of the game.
In the third, the Warriors sealed the win with Firkus scoring his 53rd and 54th goals of the season.
The Warriors were outshot 36-29 on the night, while going 2-for-5 on the power play and 2-for-3 on the penalty kill.
Moose Jaw finishes off its busy weekend by heading into Regina to take on the Pats on Sunday afternoon at 4 p.m.