It wasn’t the outcome they were hoping for on Saturday evening, but the Moose Jaw Warriors took the point in overtime and looked to Wednesday.
The Warriors had a one-goal lead on three separate occasions against the Lethbridge Hurricanes over the weekend, but couldn’t expand the lead or hold on to it and eventually lost 4-3.
“We should have had two points the other night, but we’ve had a couple good days in practice,” said Warriors forward Andrew Johnson.
In that overtime, Warriors captain Kendall McFaull took a penalty, but the Warriors were able to kill off the two minutes, but Jaimen Yakubowski of the Hurricanes scored just four seconds after the penalty expired to give Lethbridge the victory.
“I was happy that we killed off a penalty in overtime. I thought we did a lot of things well and I thought it was a good game,” said Mike Stothers after practice on Tuesday afternoon. “When you get into an overtime situation or shootout, you never know what is going to happen. They got a goal and two points and we got one.”
The Warriors are looking forward to hopefully extracting a bit of revenge at home this evening (7 p.m., Mosaic Place) when the Hurricanes visit for the first time this season.
“We’ve dissected the game a little bit. We presented some video to the guys and we’ve made a few minor adjustments here and there, but I’m sure they will make some adjustments as well,” said Stothers. “It is a good hockey club and they are much improved and I think it is a good match up.”
The team worked during practice on Tuesday to prepare for Ty Rimmer and the rest of the Hurricanes. With many positives from the overtime loss game, the Warriors just want to keep the intensity level up through the full 60 minutes.
“Our compete level is up and we have to keep that the same,” stated Johnson. “We just have to clean up the little things, like making passes, winning draws, playing our defensive zone properly and doing the little things like that will get the job done.”
Rimmer stopped 42 shots on Saturday and the Warriors know they will have to create a lot of traffic in front of him in order to get pucks past him. Rimmer has played in every game this season for the Hurricanes since being traded from the Tri-City Americans in the offseason.
“He is a good goalie and we need to get a lot of pucks and traffic at him. We have to throw a lot of pucks at his feet and we can’t turn down a shot,” said Johnson.
