Lolacher Triggers Teddies, Rysavy Scores 5 Pts in Warriors Blowout

By @MJWarriorsFun (Twitter) @moosejawwarriors_history (Instagram)

After a relatively successful 7-game road trip through the Rocky Mountains, your Moose Jaw Warriors were back at the Hangar for a showdown with the Calgary Hitmen and a chance to cover the ice with teddy bears.

Friday night’s game was the annual Teddy Bear Toss.

Warning: the Warriors scored a ton of goals. More in this game than they’d scored in any game all season.

It was the youngster, Harper Lolacher, who got the stuffies flying. He scored his third of the season, and only the third of his WHL career, in the 12th minute.

Possibly the most memorable goal of Lolacher’s hockey life, as of yet, because it was followed with the surreal littering of the ice’s surface with hundreds of stuffed animals.

The goal came when Lolacher scooped up a Denton Mateychuk rebound and fired it past the Hitmen’s goalie.

*Harper Lolacher scored the goal that triggered the Teddy Bears - photo credit Twitter*

Shortly after the ice was cleaned Josh Hoekstra added an insurance goal for the tribe, batting an errant puck into the net. That goal was also Hoekstra’s third.

In the 18th minute Jagger Firkus netted a third of the period and his team leading 17th of the season. But Sean Tschegirl got one back for Calgary almost immediately after. The first period rounded up, a high scoring, entertaining 20 minutes.

*Jagger Firkus has been electric this season*

However, the Warriors were a wrecking ball in the second period, scoring even more, pelting the Hitman for 6 goals on 16 shots. They were scoring so much that the guy who uploads their goals to Twitter couldn’t keep up.

Hoekstra scored the first, his second of the game.

Then Eric Alarie got one after that, his fifth, forcing the Hitmen to switch goalies.

Brayden Yager got right to work on the second goalie, scoring one on a Power Play in the 13th minute. Lucas Brenton scored one as well but it was sandwiched between two by Martin Rysavy. Rysavy, it should be noted, was fantastic in the game, adding three assists, for a 5 point game.

Calgary was able to settle the Warriors down in the final frame, shutting the Warriors offence down. They even added one of their own when Carter Yakemchuk beat Connor Ungar half way through. But the resistance was all for nothing as Moose Jaw would not be denied.

Final score Moose Jaw 9, Calgary 2

Rysavy finished with 2 goals and 3 assists. Mateychuk, Hoekstra, Lolacher, Alarie, Firkus, Ryder Korczak and Maximus Wanner all recorded two points each.

Rysavy, Lolacher and Hoekstra were the game’s three stars.

The Warriors will look to resume the scoring on Saturday in Medicine Hat.