Ungar And Korczak Shine in Big Warriors Win

By @MJWarriorsHistory (Twitter) @moosejawwarriors_history (Instagram)

Your Moose Jaw Warriors had met the Red Deer Rebels twice already before Friday night’s battle. In both games they lost in frustrating fashion, lacking discipline and getting punished for taking silly penalties. The Rebels are a quality hockey team, the sort of team you can’t give an inch to. But the Warriors look refreshed as of late. The return of Ryder Korczak and that fresh BC air in their Warrior lungs has translated into an impressive four game win streak, on the road, that included an 8 goal massacre and a pair of gritty victories that showed a previously unseen resolve amongst the Warriors players.

But Red Deer most certainly needs to be taken seriously. They were the top team in the Central Division and they’d won two straight. They came into the game sporting a 18-4-1-3 record and they were playing on their home ice, the Peavy Mart Centrium.

On the ice, it didn’t take long for the Warriors to break through and get the scoring started.

At 1:28 Jagger Firkus set Brayden Yager up for a historic, record-setting goal.

The goal marked 20 consecutive games in which Jagger Firkus had scored a point. That’s a franchise record that has been held since the 1996-97 season.

Interestingly, on the same night, Mitchell Marner also set the Toronto Maple Leafs franchise record for points in consecutive games with 19.

Red Deer peppered Connor Ungar with 13 shots in the first period but in typical Ungartaker form Ungar kept a clean slate.

It wasn’t long into the second period before Red Deer levelled the score though; Ungar is only human, after all. Matt’s Lindgren netted one thirty-six seconds in.

The Rebels were all over the Warriors, Moose Jaw was doing that thing they do where they just ride on Ungar for an entire period and hope for the best.

Spoiler: it worked out this time.

Despite being wildly outplayed and outshot, halfway through the frame Ryder Korczak put the Warriors back out front, when he tipped in a Matthew Gallant shot. Later in the game, the official reading on the goal changed and Gallant was given credit for it. Apparently there was no tip on the puck.

Almost immediately after the goal Korczak got booked for cross-checking. Thankfully the Rebels were stuck in the Ungar Games and couldn’t score, despite putting plenty of quality shots on the net.

In the 12th minute, Max Wanner dangled through the Rebels’ defence and zipped one past Red Deer’s goaltender, to give the Warriors a multi-goal lead. Undeniably, a beautiful goal. Max Wanner has scored a couple others like that this season.

The Warriors had been outshot 20-4 in the period and 33-13 after two but, somehow, they were winning. This has been a common occurrence in games where Connor Ungar starts in net.

Read: Making the Case: Connor Ungar is the Warriors MVP.

The Warriors, again, were giving the Rebels far too many opportunities by way of Power Plays.

Four times in the second period they played short handed. That’s almost half the period.

This was a near mirror image of their previous two meetings: bad penalties and a blown lead. The key difference in this game was that Connor Ungar was EVEN MORE difficult to score on.

*Connor Ungar was fantastic again -pic by MJ Independent*

But Red Deer did get one back, eventually. Thirty-three seconds into the third period Christoffer Sedoff was given a bit too much space in front of the Warriors goal. He beat Ungar 5-hole.

Korczak scored one for the tribe in the 8th minute, rifling a bullet from the slot, to put the Warriors up by a pair again.

Korczak scored another one a bit later too. The Rebels had pulled their goalie and had a man-advantage when Korczak scored into the empty net, at 17:33. A fatal blow, officially squashing the Rebel resistance.

*There’s something different about this team when Ryder Korczak is in the lineup - photo credit Twitter*

Fans who stuck around for the finish were treated to a late round of fisticuffs when Bob “Bobzilla” Baco dropped the gloves with Craig Armstrong at the end of the game.

The Warriors won 5-2.

Ungar and Korczak lead the way through some top-tier competition and a likely future playoff rival.

That’s 5 straight wins for the tribe and 7 of the last 8. There’s something about this team just feels a little different now when Ryder Korczak is in the lineup.

Korczak and Ungar were the game’s #1 and #3 stars. Sandwiched in between them was Red Deer’s Kai Uchacz.

Your flaming hot Moose Jaw Warriors will be in Calgary on Sunday night to battle the Hitmen. The final stop on a massively successful, 7 stop road trip through British Columbia and Alberta.