This past weekend was a great chance for the Moose Jaw Warriors to make a move in the Eastern Conference standings.
Unfortunately for the Warriors they moved in the wrong direction.
Saturday the Warriors lost 4-0 to the Kootenay Ice in Cranbrook. That loss came on the heels of Friday’s 4-1 loss in Medicine Hat as the Tribe lost consecutive games against the teams they were chasing in the standings.
“We scored one goal in two games. It’s pretty tough to win any games when you’re doing that,” said Warriors head coach Mike Stothers.
“We’ve got ourselves in a tough spot — and we put ourselves there — but you would have expect that the games would be closer or tighter games.”
The Warriors’ third straight loss saw them slip back into 11th in the conference standings.
They will look to start making the long climb back into contention Tuesday when they host Prince Albert.
“It’s a pretty quick turnaround, so we’ll get back on the ice (Monday), we’ll work on a few things and gear ourselves up for P.A.,” said Stothers who believes his team will keep working down the stretch even as their odds of making the playoffs grow longer.
“I think we have better character than that,” said Stothers. “The (players) have proven all year that they care and that they’re good resilient players. They will continue to put the time and the effort in.”
Mackenzie Skapski continued his great play in 2013 as he posted his fifth shutout of the season and his second in the last three games. Skapski made 25 saves in the win.
“We didn’t create much. We didn’t make too many things happen,” said Stothers. “The few chances we got, Skapski made saves. But I didn’t think we put enough pressure on him or on their back end to get rewarded with any goals.”
Collin Shirley opened the scoring in the first period for the Ice. Jagger Dirk scored a power play goal and Sam Reinhart scored with 1:06 left in the second period to give the Ice a 3-0 lead.
Levi Cable had the other Ice goal.
Justin Paulic made 25 saves in goal for the Warriors.
