Warriors Cream Wheat

Your Moose Jaw Warriors were back on the ice at Mosaic Place on Friday October the fifth, fresh from snapping an ugly 0-3 start to the 2018-19 WHL season. They were hosting the hot Brandon Wheat Kings, who were yet to be beaten and considered by many to be a serious championship contender this year.

The two sides had already met twice this season. Moose Jaw came up short in a tight match on the road in the season opener before coming back to Moose Jaw and falling short despite a tremendous comeback in the home opener. That was in the famed game in which somebody took home a $380,000 50/50 prize.

Clearly, the tribe wanted to put an end to Brandon’s streak and the Wheat Puffs were looking to continue using Moose Jaw as a whipping boy.

Moose Jaw would be without big defenceman Brandon Schuldhaus, who was traded to Saskatoon for a pair of draft picks.

The first perios started out well for the Warriors. The action was back-and-forth until Justin Almeida scored at 14:52, taking advantage of a Ridly Greig hooking penalty. Assists on the goal came from Tristan Langan and Josh Brook.

Almost immediately after that Stelio Mattheos tied the game, scoring his third of the season, with assists from Cole Reinhardt and former Moose Jaw Warrior, Chase Hartje. In case you’ve forgotten, Hartje, along with Luka Burzan, were packaged up for Kale Clague near the end of last season.

Daniil Stepanov gave Moose Jaw the lead again in the second, Josh Brook again earning the assist on the goal, Daemon Hunt got one as well.

But, like in period one, Stelio Mattheos extinguished that lead almost as quickly as the Warriors took it. Schael Higson and Conor Gutenberg got assists on the play.

The third period commenced without any further scoring. The teams were off to overtime.

It was over in blistering speed. One trip down the ice and Josh Brook found the back of the net, beating Jiri Patera for the win. 0:14 into the extra period. Again, it was Almeida and Langan getting the helpers.

Warriors win 3-2.

That’s two straight victories for the good guys; and both with new goalie Brodan Salmond between the pipes. He was spectacular against Regina on Sunday. The young club is starting to show a bit of promise. They will have the opportunity to get back to .500 in Moose Jaw on Saturday. But they’ll to beat the returning champion Swift Current Broncos to do it; the team who eliminated Moose Jaw from the playoffs last season.