The Moose Jaw Warriors out fought the Lethbridge Hurricanes in a heavyweight battle in downtown Moose Jaw.
The Warriors scored three goals in the third period and secured a 4-3 win over the Hurricanes on Friday night at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
“Right from the start of the game, it was a battle,” Warriors assistant coach Curtis Pereverzoff said. “Lethbridge is a tough team, they pushed hard, they pushed right until the end and credit to our guys for just sticking with it.”
Martin Rysavy led the charge for the Warriors in the win, finishing with a goal and three points on the night.
“It was a big battle, we had a big motivation because we lost the last time, so we wanted to have a nice bounce back and we did a good job,” Rysavy said.
“It was 1-1 for most of the hockey game, so I’m glad we pushed ourselves in the third period, we scored a couple of goals and we took control of the game.”
Jagger Firkus and Brayden Yager chipped in with a goal and two points each, while Warriors captain Denton Mateychuk finished with two assists.
The Warriors’ top line of Rysavy, Firkus and Yager has combined for five goals and 11 points in the last two games.
Rysavy said the line has gelled really well.
“We have good chemistry cause we played a lot of games last year and even now, we just put it on another level,” he said. “It’s great to play with these two guys.”
After Lethbridge opened the scoring, Rysavy answered for the Warriors midway through the first period to tie the game at 1-1 after one.
Neither team was able to break through in the second as both goalies put together strong performances.
The Warriors found another gear early in the third when Firkus broke the game open with his fifth of the season just 59 seconds into the final frame.
Yager followed that up 4:02 later with his seventh of the season to give the Warriors a 3-1 lead.
Then 3:02 after that, Ethan Semeniuk potted his first with the Warriors to put Moose Jaw up by three goals.
That ended up being the game-winning goal as the Hurricanes struck for two later in the period to make it a one-goal win for the Warriors.
“Everyone knows how we want to play the game inside and so I would say credit to all the veterans for stepping up and leading the way, they led by example, especially in the third period with how we wanted to play the game,” Pereverzoff said.
Jackson Unger put together another strong game for the Warriors, making 27 saves in the win, while Moose Jaw was outshot 31-30 on the night.
The Warriors were 1-for-2 on the power play and 1-for-3 on the penalty kill.
The Warriors are back in action on Saturday night when they welcome in the Prince Albert Raiders to the Hangar. Click here to get tickets. The game can be heard on Country 100 with the voice of the Warriors' James Gallo.
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