Strong Start Powers Warriors To Win Over Regina
October 21, 2022 – Western Hockey League (WHL) – Moose Jaw Warriors News Release
After the first nine games of the season, the Moose Jaw Warriors had been looking for stronger starts to games.
That’s exactly what the Warriors got on Thursday night against the rival Regina Pats, scoring four times in the first period and cruising to a 5-2 win at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
“I thought it was probably our most complete game of the season,” Warriors assistant coach Scott King said. “Anytime you’re putting up four goals and 20 shots [in the first period], that’s a pretty good start to the game and that’s something we talked about prior to the game.”
Cole Jordan opened the scoring just five minutes into the game with his first of the season.
The Calgary Flames prospect added his second of the game early in the second for his first career multi-goal game.
“We thought from puck drop until the final buzzer, we played really well, we were hard, we didn’t really give them a chance,” Jordan said.
The Warriors matched up the defensive pairing of Lucas Brenton and Max Wanner against Pats star Connor Bedard and limited the WHL’s leading scorer to one goal and season-low three shots.
King said the matchup worked out well.
“We tried to get Brenton against Bedard as much as possible, he’s got a long reach, he’s got a good stick and so I thought he did a really good job against him,” he said.
“It was a group effort, we tried to take away time and space in the offensive zone and I though we were really good at that tonight.”
After Jordan’s opening goal, the Warriors went in front by 2-0 when Brayden Yager snapped home his fourth of the year on the power play.
Regina responded only 58 seconds later as Stanislav Svozil banked in a shot to make it a one-goal game midway through the first period.
The Warriors struck right back as Captain Denton Mateychuk, who finished with a goal and three points on the night, took a pass in the slot and scored his second of the season.
Tate Schofer buried a rebound late in the first to complete the dominant opening frame for the Warriors and putting the team up by three. Moose Jaw wouldn’t surrender the three-goal lead for the rest of the game.
Jordan’s goal early in the second extended the lead to 5-1, but Connor Bedard cut the lead down back down to three less than two minutes later. That was as close as Regina would get.
“It was a hard fought game and we did a really good job,” Jordan said.
The Warriors outshot the Pats, 42-25, in the win, while also winning the special teams battle by going 1-for-4 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.
Jackson Unger settled in and made 18 saves over the final two periods to earn his first win of the season in goal for the Warriors.
Moose Jaw will now look to make it back-to-back wins over Regina when they travel into the Queen City on Sunday afternoon for a rematch.
“Regina has never been an easy barn to play in, so we’re just going to have to come into practice [over the next two days] and get ourselves prepared for another big game,” Jordan said.
Puck drops at 4 p.m. on Sunday at the Brandt Centre.
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