It was a back and forth battle between the Moose Jaw Warriors and the Red Deer Rebels on Saturday evening. The Warriors finished up their three game road trip with an 8-5 win.
The Warriors (35-15-5-1) found themselves down by two at the end of the first period, but the action didn’t start until the second period. Both teams scored a combined nine goals in the middle frame.
“We didn’t come out with the push back that we ended the game with in Calgary that we thought we might have,” said Warriors assistant coach Mike Vandenberghe. “As a coaching staff, we had hoped the boys would have taken that, so we some readjustment time, the boys came out hard in the second.”
Quinton Howden scored an unassisted shorthanded goal to get the Warriors on the board. Less than a minute later, Rebels’ Cody Thiel would score to reestablish the lead. The Warriors would score three straight goals in just over five minutes. Cam Braes would score his team leading 32nd goal on the power play, James Henry would score a minute and a half later and Torrin White would score almost four minutes later to take the lead.
The Rebels would answer back with a unassisted goal from Charles Inglis, but Warriors captain Kendall McFaull would give the Tribe the lead with a goal not even a minute later. Rebels’ Turner Elson would score 50 seconds later to tie the game up again, but Justin Kirsch would score late in the second period to give the Warriors the lead heading into the final frame.
“I thought we got the momentum back as our forecheck created opportunities for us and the guys came in hard, but they were would turn around and have a short shift or make a soft play and they would put it behind us,” said Vandenberghe. “I think the saving grace for us was the sixth goal that we got at the end of the period.
“You could see that their bench was a little bit deflated. I think they felt if they kept it 5-5 going into the third that they would have a chance to get a point out of there and that one kind of hurt them a little.”
The Warriors would secure the win in the third period with a Kirsch power play goal and Sam Fioretti added an empty net goal.
For more on this story, read a future edition of the Times-Herald.
