Red Deer, AB — Two of the top-four teams in the Eastern Conference went toe-to-toe over 65-plus minutes of hockey on Wednesday.
The Warriors lost a tight 4-3 game in a shootout to the Red Deer Rebels at the Peavey Mart Centrium.
“You had to earn every inch out there tonight, it was take checking and both goalies played really well,” Warriors assistant coach Scott King said.
“Both teams had looks in the three-on-three to win it, it was a back-and-forth game, but it was a hard-fought game for sure.”
The Warriors were coming off a disappointing loss in Edmonton on Tuesday and King said he liked the way the team’s leaders responded in the shootout loss.
“I thought our veteran, leader guys played like leaders tonight,” King said. “Down the stretch, you need your best players to be your best player and our top guys were pretty good tonight.”
Moose Jaw trailed 1-0 heading into the third period before the two sides combined for five goals over the final 20 minutes of regulation, sending the game to overtime.
Jagger Firkus scored 33 seconds into the third to tie the game, but Red Deer’s Frantisek Formanek responded to restore the Rebels’ lead only 2:22 later.
Atley Calvert would fire home his team-leading 23rd of the season to pull the Warriors back to even with 8:51 to play in regulation.
However, the Rebels had an answer again as Kalan Lind scored to make it 3-2 for Red Deer with 7:19 to go.
The Warriors wouldn’t go away as Ryder Korczak banked in his 15th of the season to tie the game with 1:16 left in the third.
After a back-and-forth overtime, Kai Uchacz scored the only goal in the shootout to secure the two points for the Rebels. The Warriors remain in fourth place in the Eastern Conference, five points behind Saskatoon.
“I liked the way we bounced back and the way we came back from down a goal twice and credit the guys, they battled hard and that was an important point,” King said.
Connor Ungar was a key to helping secure the point for the Warriors as he made 47 saves in the loss. Moose Jaw was outshot 50-30 by Red Deer.
The Warriors are back in action on Friday when they host the Portland Winterhawks at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.