Warriors Lose Thriller to P.A.
Nick Murray
Your Moose Jaw Warriors were back on the ice at Mosaic Place for their third game of the fresh WHL season, where they would square off against the Prince Albert Raiders, a club that battled the Warriors tooth and nail in the opening round of last season's playoffs; turning what was expected by many to be a Warriors domination into an unforgettable series and nearly a whopping upset.
The Warriors came into this game without two of their stud defencemen; Jett Woo was nursing an injury and Brandon Schuldhaus was serving a suspension from a slashing incident in game 7 of last season's playoff series against the eventual champion Swift Current Broncos.
Coming into the match Moose Jaw was winless at 0-2, while PA was off to a hot start at 3-0.
The first period started out a little slow, but once the first goal was scored the flood began and goals just kept on coming.
Tristyn DeRoose took a kneeing penalty in the 14th minute and Sergei Sapego of the Raiders made Moose Jaw pay for it. The goal was Sapego's second of the season. Period one ended 1-0 bad guys, but things were about to get exciting.
Justin Almeida leveled things out early in the second. His second of the season. Assists came from Brayden Tracey and Tristin Langan. Shortly after that Tracey and Almeida connected again to give Moose Jaw a 2-1 lead.
Brayden Tracey found mesh a second time in the period. This time it was captain Josh Brook who set him up. Warriors would head into period three with a spectacular 3-1 advantage.
They didn't slow down there either; the Belorussian blitz hooked up in the second minute of period three. Daniil Stepanov feeding Yegor Buyalski for his first as a Warrior.
With Moose Jaw up 4-1 it seemed all but finished for everyone in the building who wasn't a Prince Albert Raider. They just wouldn't roll over and die.
The third period was all Raiders. Aliaksei Protas scored at 13:48, then Justin Nachbaur followed that up in the 17th minute with his second of the season. It was now 4-3 and P.A was hungry to keep their unbeaten streak alive.
At 18:31 Parker Kelly stunned the crowd, tying the game at 4. The comeback was complete.
And just to stick that final nail in the coffin, Parker Kelly scored the overtime winner too.
Prince Albert 5, Moose Jaw 4
Warriors starting goalie, Adam Evanoff was awarded the games second star. 5 goals allowed be damned, he still made 39 saves. Brayden Tracey and Parker Kelly were the other two stars.
Moose Jaw's next game is against Regina on Sunday afternoon.