Edmonton, AB — The Moose Jaw Warriors had moments throughout the game on Friday night, but the Edmonton Oil Kings had an answer throughout the night.
The Warriors opened their two-game road trip to Alberta with a 7-5 loss to the Oil Kings at Rogers Centre.
“We knew Edmonton was going to be a team that brings a lot of energy and at the end of the day, we weren’t able to match it,” Warriors assistant coach Curtis Pereverzoff said after the game.
Moose Jaw got the perfect start to the game with Martin Rysavy scoring 55 seconds into the game.
Pavel McKenzie followed that up six minutes later to make it 2-0 for the Warriors, but they couldn’t hold the lead and that would be the story of the game.
“I don’t think we did a great job managing the puck and we knew that Edmonton is going to be a team that’s going to capitalize as soon as they get a chance to go up the ice with it, they can make stuff happen and that’s exactly what happened tonight,” Pereverzoff said.
Brayden Yager had two goals, while Jagger Firkus extended his goal streak to seven games and finished with three points, extending his point streak to 11 games.
The Warriors built up a 2-0 lead early in the first, but Edmonton responded with two goals from Skylar Bruce to make it 2-2 after one.
Yager’s tenth of the season put the Warriors back in front just 2:42 into the second period, but Edmonton struck back with goals from Rilen Kovacevic and Cole Miller to take a 5-3 lead.
Firkus’ 17th goal of the season with just over two minutes left in the second pulled the Warriors back even, but Edmonton answered right back with a marker from Marshall Finnie only 34 seconds later.
The Oil Kings extended their lead to 6-4 early in the third on a goal from Marc Lajoie.
Yager’s second of the game came on the power play with 2:40 left, but Edmonton scored into an empty net 50 seconds later to seal the win.
“We need to make sure that the shift after a goal, whether it’s a goal for or a goal against, needs to be our best shift,” Pereverzoff said. “We did a good job getting some goals, but we weren’t able to sustain any pressure after we scored.”
Jackson Unger made 31 saves in the loss, while Moose Jaw was outshot 38-27 in the game.
The Warriors finished 2-for-5 on the power play and kept Edmonton off the board on their two attempts with the man advantage.
The Warriors will get Saturday off before finishing up the road trip in Calgary on Sunday against the Hitmen at the Scotiabank Saddledome.