Moose Jaw, Sask. – The Moose Jaw Warriors are loading up the bus for their first Alberta road trip of the season this weekend.
The Warriors will hit the road to face the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Friday and then travel into Medicine Hat on Saturday.
“It will be good experience for the young guys, getting on the road for the first time, two big opponents, so it will be good,” Warriors forward Ethan Semeniuk said.
Moose Jaw enters the weekend with a 1-2-1-0 record this season after coming away with three out of four points against the Regina Pats during last weekend’s home-and-home set.
Head coach Mark O’Leary said he’s seeing progress in the team’s game.
“It’s important that our messaging doesn’t change,” he said. “The first weekend, we talked about process and making sure we’re improving and the results will eventually come and it was no different this past weekend, I thought we played two pretty good games.
“We didn’t get the result, but we were a better team in weekend number two than the first one.”
The Warriors will receive a big boost this weekend as newly minted captain Brayden Yager returns to the lineup for the first time this season after rejoining the team following a stint with the NHL’s Winnipeg Jets.
O’Leary said having Yager back in the lineup allows the team to settle more into their roles.
“Even just at practice, practice this week has been great and it just takes it up another level,” he said. “He practices with a lot of juice, he practices like a pro and that’s good for our group.”
The Warriors will face off with the Central Division-leading Hurricanes on Friday and then meet the Tigers, who are ranked second in the CHL Top-10, on Saturday, giving the team a tough early season test.
Semeniuk said the squad is ready for the challenge.
“We just need to build off what we did last weekend, obviously we got Yages back, so that will be huge for our offence, but we just need to keep sticking to the game plan, like we have been, and keep building game-to-game,” he said.
The Warriors open the road trip against the Hurricanes at 7 p.m. Saskatchewan time on Friday night at VisitLethbridge.com Arena.
You can catch all the action on Country 100 with James Gallo, starting with the pregame shows at 6:40.