Warriors Drop Preseason Opener to Broncos
September 9, 2022 – Western Hockey League (WHL) – Moose Jaw Warriors News Release
A four-goal second period for the Swift Current Broncos was enough to sink the Moose Jaw Warriors on Friday night.
The Warriors lost 5-4 to the Broncos at the Moose Jaw Events Centre in the preseason opener for both squads.
Despite the loss, Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary was pleased with what he saw from his lineup, which featured a mixture of young and old players.
“Our mindset is just process for sure, there’s lots of good things to take from tonight’s game,” O’Leary said. “I thought for two out of three periods, it was a really good game.”
Moose Jaw led 2-1 after 20 minutes thanks to goals from Lucas Brenton and Jagger Firkus, but the game swung in the Broncos’ favour early in the second period.
Warriors forward Robert Baco was assessed a five-minute major for checking from behind in the opening two minutes of the frame and Swift Current capitalized.
The Broncos picked up four straight goals from Brady Birnie – who added to his first period marker – Grayson Burzynski, Josh Film and Tyson Yaremko to take a 5-2 lead midway through the second.
Firkus cut the lead down to two going into the third when he snapped a shot past Broncos goalie Reid Dyck late in the second.
Tate Schofer cut the lead to one just 4:56 into the third, but that was as close as the Warriors would get.
“If there’s things that you want to grab from exhibition play, it’s no different in terms of circumstances – like being down by a couple goals going into the third period – and I thought our guys handled it real well,” O’Leary said.
“We talk about a relentless mindset all the time and we did that in terms of the races and battles all over the ice.”
15-year-old goalie Jonah Tonhauser started in net for the Warriors and stopped 13-of-16 shots in 29:15 of game time. Justen Maric came in for he second half of the game and turned away nine of 11 shots.
The Warriors dressed a lineup that featured four 15-year-olds and three 16-year-olds.
Max Finley, the Warriors’ 2022 second round pick, made his WHL preseason debut and enjoyed every minute of the experience.
“It was great, really fast pace and the guys are a lot older, so it’s very tough out there, but I think I did pretty good for the first game,” he said.
Landen McFadden was a fourth round pick by the Warriors in 2022 and he also got his first taste of the WHL in the game.
He said he got more comfortable throughout the 60 minutes.
“I thought like as the periods went on, I got better and better and got a lot of shots, so it was pretty good,” McFadden said.
O’Leary said the young players came out and did exactly what he was looking for.
“They worked as hard as they could, they competed and they got their feet wet in the Western Hockey League,” he said. “I thought as the game went on, and certainly in the third period, they were very good.”
The Warriors will continue the preseason coming up on Saturday when they travel to Swift Current for a rematch with the Broncos.
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