It was a frustrating weekend in Alberta for the Moose Jaw Warriors.
The Warriors came away without a point from a two-game road trip to the Central Division after falling 2-1 to the Calgary Hitmen on Sunday night at the Scotiabank Saddledome.
“I thought we’d be a lot better tonight, especially after the way things went in Edmonton, so disappointing,” Warriors associate coach Scott King said.
Moose Jaw was looking for a bounce back performance after falling 7-5 in Edmonton on Friday.
King said the Warriors looked flat in Sunday’s loss.
“We were slow to get pucks, we were slow to win pucks and it just felt like one of those nights where we just couldn’t get the ball rolling and when it’s one of those games, it’s real frustrating and I’m sure that the players are frustrated too,” he said.
Jackson Unger kept the Warriors in the game, making 48 saves in the loss, while Denton Mateychuk scored with 1:17 to go in the third for the Warriors’ lone goal.
The Warriors were held to just 15 shots through the first two periods before firing 16 on the Hitmen net in the third.
King said the Warriors need to work on their consistency in the offensive zone.
“Didn’t do a good enough job of just really being hungry to get pucks back,” he said. “We get in there, we get a shot, they win a race to the puck and out of the zone,” he said.
“It’s a matter of shooting the puck, but it’s also a matter of hitting the net, there’s so many times tonight where we’re just whistling it off the glass.”
After the Warriors hit three posts on close opportunities in the first period, Calgary opened the scoring with 5:36 left in the period when Dax Williams found the back of the net.
Unger made some huge stops in the second period, finishing with 26 saves in the frame to keep the Warriors within one going into the third.
Midway through the final period, Calgary picked up some insurance when Carson Wetsch fired it in to make it 2-0.
Mateychuk blasted home his fourth of the season on the power play with 1:17 to go in regulation, but that was as close as Moose Jaw was able to get.
That goal for Mateychuk moved him into fifth all-time in Warriors history for points by a defenceman, passing Josh Brook with 158 points. He’s now just five back of Lyle Odelein for fourth place and 54 back of Nathan Paetsch’s franchise record.
The Warriors were 1-for-5 on the power play, while the Hitmen finished 0-for-2 on the night.
Moose Jaw sits at 10-7-0-0 this season and in third place in the Eastern Conference after the weekend.
The Warriors will look to bounce back when they return to home ice to host Brandon on Thursday and Medicine Hat on Friday.
In response to Canada's Online News Act and Meta (Facebook and Instagram) removing access to local news from their platforms, Discover Moose Jaw encourages you to get your news directly from your trusted source by bookmarking this page and downloading the Discover Moose Jaw app HERE.