For the ninth time this season, the Moose Jaw Warriors battled their way to a shootout. This time around, the Warriors were on the winning side, earning a 3-2 shootout victory over the Regina Pats.
The Pats (18-27-3-3) lost their eighth consecutive game and have now lost six straight one-goal games.
In a game that could have went either way, the Warriors came out with a sense of urgency to start the game and saw Justin Kirsch score his 17th of the season on the man advantage midway through the first period.
Bryson Gore made it 2-0 with 2:18 left in the opening frame as he beat Pats goaltender Matt Hewitt on a breakaway after speeding past two defenders.
For the 27th time this season, the Warriors (17-26-3-6) played to a one-goal game. The victory puts them in sole possession of 10th place in the Eastern Conference and 10 points behind the Medicine Hat Tigers, who visit Mosaic Place on Friday evening.
“It is scary the amount of games that we have been in that have been one goal games, but if you are coming on the wrong ends of those too often, you get a little gun-shy,” said Warriors assisted coach Mark O’Leary. “Right now, we are coming out on the other side of these and it is a lot of fun. I hope it pays dividends down the road.”
Despite taking a 2-0 lead, the Pats came out with a much better second period and controlled much of the play, outshooting Moose Jaw 15-9 and scoring two goals to tie the game up. Braden Christoffer stuffed a goal past Justin Paulic, who was making his sixth straight start since Daniel Wapple is injured. Pats defenceman Stephen Hak took a wrist shot from the point that hit Braiden Doucette and redirected past Paulic late in the middle frame.
Sam Fioretti nearly tied the game with seconds left on the clock in the second period, but hit the post and Hewitt again robbed Fioretti in the third on a partial breakaway.
For more on this story, read an upcoming edition of the Times-Herald.
