Moose Jaw, Sask. – After battling to keep it close through 40 minutes, the Moose Jaw Warriors couldn’t hold off the Medicine Hat Tigers any longer in the third period on Friday night.
The Warriors dropped their third straight, falling 6-3 to the Tigers to kick-off the weekend at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
“We just looked slow, we looked slow in all areas of the ice and they’re the fastest team in the league and we just had a tough time keeping up,” Warriors associate coach Scott King said.
Jackson Unger made 37 saves in the Warriors’ net as he was peppered with 43 shots in the loss.
“Jackson kept us in the game for sure in the first period, they had 20 shots, they had a whole bunch of grade A looks,” King said.
Despite being heavily outshot, the Warriors fought to stay in the game and sent the game into the third period all knotted up at 3-3.
“We were right in the game until the third period, but we’ve just got to be better in the third and that should have easily been our game,” Warriors forward Ethan Hughes said.
Owen Berge opened the scoring for the Warriors just 1:23 into the game as he tipped in a point shot from Connor Schmidt for his fourth goal of the season.
The Tigers struck back with two goals in 1:00 as Mathew Ward scored and then Gavin McKenna followed it up to make it 2-1 for Medicine Hat after one.
The Warriors started the second hot as Brayden Yager finished off a great passing play with his fifth of the season just 23 seconds into the middle frame to tie the game at 2-2.
Medicine Hat went back in front just past the midway point of the second on a goal from Nate Corbet.
The Warriors answered right back only 1:25 later when Kalem Parker finished off a great feed from Lynden Lakovic for his first of the season, which sent the game into the third period tied up at 3-3.
The Tigers took control in the third when Oasiz Wiesblatt scored just 4:44 into the period.
Medicine Hat would add a shorthanded goal from Hunter St. Martin with just under three minutes to go and Andrew Basha scored an empty net goal with less than two minutes to play to seal the win.
“In the third period, we had a couple of looks, we had a two-on-one, if we don’t score on those opportunities, more often than not, that’s going to come back to get us,” King said.
“When you only have a dozen shots to that point, you can’t miss, you have to force the goalie to make a save.”
The Warriors will look to bounce back when they head into Swift Current to battle the Broncos on Saturday night.