Connor Ungar is just three games into his stint with the Moose Jaw Warriors, but the 20-year-old netminder is making a strong early impression.
Ungar stopped 40 of 41 shots on Wednesday night to lead the Warriors to a 3-1 win over the Saskatoon Blades at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
“Without Connor Ungar in net, it obviously would have been a lot of different game,” Warriors assistant coach Gord Burnett said.
The Warriors picked up a goal in each period and Ungar stood tall throughout the night to ensure Moose Jaw walked away with two points.
The Calgary, AB product said the win felt really good.
“It’s hard to not feel pretty good about yourself after you get peppered like that and you’re able to come away with the win,” Ungar said.
Ungar turned away nine shots in the first period, but had to come through big in the second period, stopping all 20 shots he faced, including two massive cross-crease saves.
Burnett said Ungar was unbelievable.
“He battled hard in the blue paint when they were waking away, a couple of them I have no idea how it stayed out, so credit to him and at the end of the day, without him, we don’t win that hockey game,” he said.
The Warriors acquired Ungar in an off-season trade with Red Deer. He is now 3-0 with a 2.67 goals-against average and a 0.921 save percentage through three games for Moose Jaw this season.
Ungar said he’s been working on being calmer in the net and it’s paid off so far this season.
“The past couple years, growing, maturing, that’s the blueprint there, you want to be calm in net and give your team a chance by making those saves,” he said.
The Warriors jumped out to an early lead when Atley Calvert buried his third of the season off a rebound just 4:32 into the game.
Tate Schofer extended the lead when he scored on a breakaway for his first of the season just past the midway point of the second period.
Thanks to Ungar, the game went into the third with the Warriors in front by two.
The Blades were able to cut that lead to one with 3:48 to play when Conner Roulette finally solved the Warriors’ netminder.
That was as close as Saskatoon was able to get through as Jagger Firkus deposited the puck into an empty net with just over a minute to play to seal the win.
Burnett said the Warriors have some work to do in the defensive end after allowing 41 shots.
“A couple of hiccups on our breakout that obviously results in more d-zone time and then just some execution passing-wise again results in d-zone time,” he said. “As the game went on, I just thought our entry coverage wasn’t there, some work to do there on how we’re going to cover the other team entering our zone.”
The Warriors finished with 22 shots in the win. Moose Jaw won the special teams battle, going 5-for-5 on the penalty kill and 1-for-2 on the power play.
Next up for the Warriors is a second-round playoff matchup against the Winnipeg ICE on Saturday night at the Hangar. After that, Moose Jaw travels to Saskatoon for a rematch with the Blades.