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Brandon, MB – The Moose Jaw Warriors couldn’t keep the momentum going for 60 minutes on Thursday night.
After a strong first period, the Warriors ended up falling 5-3 to the Brandon Wheat Kings at Westoba Place in their final road game of the regular season.
“It was a really good first period, if we would have continued like that, we would have won the game for sure, in the second period, we were just watching them play,” Warriors associate coach Scott King said.
“It is what it is right now, they had something to play for and we’re missing some key guys, but if we play like we did in the first period, we wouldn’t have had a problem tonight, just got a little bit complacent.”
The Warriors got a pair of goals from Jagger Firkus and another from Brayden Yager in the first period to build up a 3-1 lead, but managed only three shots in the second period.
It was a great [first] period, we were all over the puck, we were shooting it, we were getting to the net, we were doing everything that you want to do, we were tracking well,” King said.
“[In the second period], we weren’t jumping checks, we weren’t playing quick and they took it to us, they ended up outshooting us 18-3 and in the third period, we didn’t do enough to generate enough opportunities.”
Firkus and Yager finished with three points each in the loss, while Dimitri Fortin had 35 saves in goal for Moose Jaw.
Firkus scored back-to-back goals in the first 9:02 of the game, giving him 58 goals on the year, and putting the Warriors in front 2-0 early.
Brandon struck back when Jayden Wiens found the back of the net with 6:19 to go in the first.
However, the Warriors answered right back only 1:33 later when Firkus set up Yager for his career-high 35th goal of the season, making it 3-1 for the Warriors after one.
The Wheat Kings controlled the second and cut the lead down to one when Rhett Ravndahl scored midway through the middle frame.
Brandon would pick up goals from Rylen Roersma, Luke Shipley and Brett Hyland in the third period to skate to the win.
“It wasn’t anything that Brandon did, we didn’t do a very good job of managing pucks in the neutral zone and getting pucks in behind them,” King said.
“We were stubborn, we weren’t making the sure play, we were kind of forcing it trying to make plays through people and that’s a recipe for not a very good night.”
The Warriors were outshot 29-12 over the final two periods and 40-23 overall in the game.
Moose Jaw’s power play went 1-for-3 on the night, while the penalty kill was 0-for-1.
The Warriors return to the ice on Saturday to host the Regina Pats in the regular season finale. It’s Yara Awards Night as the team honours this season’s top performers with the ceremony starting at 6:50 p.m.