Tribe take split out of weekend tournament

Corey Atkinson
Moose Jaw Times-Herald
The Moose Jaw Warriors probably want better than a split on a weekend once the regular season starts, but considering their pre-season just began, winning one and losing one is a fairly reasonable way to do business.
At this early stage, Warriors coach Dave Hunchak is more concerned with the process than the results, which were a 4-2 win over Swift Current Saturday and a 7-3 loss to Lethbridge Sunday at Saskatoon's Ice Breaker tournament.
"We're pretty early in the process here," said Hunchak. "I liked our tempo and I liked the way we skated. There were some things we can work on, but for the first two exhibition games this year, there are certainly some positives there."
In the 4-2 win over Swift Current, Joel Broda had a hat trick and Quinton Howden potted the other marker. Devin Dubyk and Kevin Jebson stopped 39 of 41 shots in the game. Evan Fuller, Chad Suer and Joseph Kornelson scored for the Warriors in their 7-3 loss, while Brandon Glover and Todd Mathews saved 22 of 29 in the loss.
"The performance of our young guys was good," said Hunchak. "Guys like Nathan McMaster, Quinton Howden and Dylan Mcllrath, I thought, had a good weekend. In general, I was really happy with the new players on our team."
Hunchak felt the goaltenders were solid Saturday, particularly Dubyk.
"They both gave us the type of stops we needed at key times," he said.
The Warriors got into penalty trouble Sunday, which Hunchak felt was the difference in the game.
The Warriors won't play again until a home-and-home series this weekend with the Brandon Wheat Kings to close off their exhibition season.
Still, Hunchak may not be in too big of a hurry to make some lineup decisions this week. There are only 29 players in camp, and five of them (Ryley Grantham, Neal Prokop, Jordan Knackstedt, Joel Broda and Travis Hamonic) are off to their respective NHL camps later this week.
"We're going to take our time with this," Hunchak said. "We're not in any rush right now to get down in numbers. At some point this weekend, a couple of young defencemen might have to play forward for us, too."
Hunchak will sit down with all four goaltenders remaining in camp Monday.
"The reality is they've gone through a camp and they've each played half a game," Hunchak said. "We'll have to sit down and discuss it and hopefully learn some more in the next couple of days with them."
The regular season starts Sept. 20 at home against the Swift Current Broncos.

Corey Atkinson can be reached at 691-1260