Kamloops, B.C. – Brayden Yager and Lynden Lakovic had a goal and three points each, but it wasn’t enough for the Moose Jaw Warriors on Saturday night in Kamloops.
The Warriors fell 6-4 to the Blazers to drop the second game of their five-game road trip through the BC Division.
“I thought the first period and third period were really good, I thought we stuck to what we need to do, we played well, we were structured and did lots of really good things,” Warriors associate coach Scott King said.
“The second period, there was just points where individual mistakes, not following the plan, playing slow, not doing the things that gave us success in the first period and got back to it in the third period, it was much better and gave ourselves a chance to win.”
The loss was the seventh straight for the Warriors, who drop to 3-9-1-0 on the season through 14 games.
Yager and Lakovic led the offence for the Warriors with a pair of three-point nights, while Owen Berge chipped in with a goal and two points.
The Warriors opened the scoring on Nolan Paquette’s first Western Hockey League goal with 2:58 to play in the first period, but Kamloops answered back only 42 seconds later as Max Sullivan tied the game at 1-1 after one.
The second period saw the Blazers take control of the game with three early goals, two from John Szabo and one from Nathan Behm to take a 4-1 lead with 8:11 gone in the middle frame.
After Kamloops had a goal disallowed on goaltender interference, Yager converted on the ensuing power play for his team-leading eighth of the season to pull the Warriors back within two with 5:48 left in the second.
Szabo would complete the hat trick for the Blazers with 11 seconds to go in the second, giving them a 5-2 lead after two.
The Warriors didn’t go away and Berge snapped home his fifth of the season just 2:08 into the third to make it a two-goal game again.
Moose Jaw pulled back within one with 46 seconds to play when Lakovic ripped home his seventh of the season.
The Blazers would add an empty net goal from Emmitt Finnie with 15 seconds to play to seal the win.
“You’ve got to put 60 [minutes] together and we didn’t do that tonight, but I thought we pushed at different points in the game,” King said. “I thought the third period, we came out and took it to them and gave ourselves an opportunity.”
Jackson Unger got the start for Moose Jaw and allowed four goals on 21 shots before being replaced by Josh Banini in the second. Banini stopped three out of four shots before leaving the game due to injury.
Unger finished with 27 saves on 31 shots in the loss, while the Warriors were outshot 36-31 on the night.
Moose Jaw was 1-for-5 on the power play and killed off all five power play chances for Kamloops.
The Warriors will continue their BC Division road trip on Tuesday night against the Cougars in Prince George.