Moose Jaw, SK – The Moose Jaw Warriors’ struggles in the third period continued Friday night.
The Warriors went into the third period tied at 2-2 with the Lethbridge Hurricanes, but Lethbridge struck for five goals in the frame and beat Moose Jaw, 7-3, at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
“The third period starts off and we give up two goals in the first 40 seconds and that’s just a matter of not being ready to go after the intermission, so no excuse there, we need to find ways to be better,” Warriors associate coach Scott King said.
The Warriors now have a 1-6-1 record when tied heading into the third period this season.
Warriors captain Brayden Yager said Lethbridge won the compete battle against Moose Jaw.
“The game comes down to who’s going to win the most battles and Lethbridge was more willing to bare down and win every battle,” he said. “I thought the second period was better, but you can’t win in this league if you’re only going to play 20 minutes.”
The Hurricanes struck on the opening shift of the game when Hayden Pakkala tipped in a point shot from Tristen Doyle to make it 1-0 only 27 seconds into the game.
Lethbridge took a 2-0 lead late in the first period on a breakaway goal from Logan Wormald.
The Warriors came out fighting in the second period and took advantage of some penalties from the Hurricanes.
Yager got Moose Jaw on the board with 8:50 gone in the middle frame when he snapped home his ninth of the season on the power play.
Less than four minutes later, Owen Berge took a feed from Yager and fired home his seventh of the year to tie the game at 2-2 after two.
The Hurricanes struck quickly, and often, to start the third period with Shane Smith giving them the lead only 20 seconds into the frame.
Just 19 seconds later, Brayden Edwards scored to restore the two-goal lead for Lethbridge.
Noah Chadwick would fire home another goal just over a minute later to make it 5-2 for the Hurricanes.
Edwards’ second of the period gave the Hurricanes a four-goal advantage on the Warriors with 7:54 gone in the frame.
Moose Jaw got one back when Aiden Ziprick roofed his third of the season midway through the period, but Smith scored his second of the night for the Hurricanes later in the frame to make it a 7-3 final.
“We put ourselves in a good spot after the second and then we come out a little bit too comfortable and too flat, so obviously that’s not good enough,” Yager said.
Jackson Unger stopped 25 of 32 shots on the night, while the Warriors were outshot 32-28 in the loss.
Moose Jaw finished 2-for-4 on the power play, while Lethbridge went 1-for-3.
The Warriors will look to bounce back when they travel to Medicine Hat to face-off with the Tigers on Saturday night. Puck drops at 8 p.m. Saskatchewan time at Co-op Place.