Warriors Definitely Don’t Look Like Contenders
Owen and Parker Berge - Pic by Tammy Berge Twitter
By Twitter: @MJWarriorsHistory Instagram:@moosejawwarriors_history
It didn’t take your Moose Jaw Warriors very long to get on the scoreboard on Tuesday night.
Jagger Firkus light the lamp when he beat Regina Pats goalie Ewan Huet from the hash marks, in the fourth minute.
It was a fancy start for the team, as they were coming off a sour loss to Prince Albert and looking for a turnaround win against a tough division rival.
The fun didn’t last long though as the Warriors completely imploded in Period Two and Regina put a serious beatdown on them, scoring three unanswered goals in extremely short succession.
Braxton Whitehead notched two of them, his sixth and seventh of the season. Tye Spencer scored the other one.
Braxton Whitehead scored a pair of goals - photo credit Twitter
All three of those goals came on the Power Play.
All three within five minutes of each other.
The first half of the second period was mired in a swamp of short-handedness, and the second half was hardly an improvement.
If you’ll remember correctly, the Warriors had a bit of a problem with this last year too.
It’s hard to be the best team in the league when you’re spending large swaths of games short-handed.
(This should frustrate you)
Period Two was such a brutal collapse from the Warriors that they only managed to put one shot on the Pats goalie.
At the moment Moose Jaw was digging in for a comeback, they took another dumb penalty, suffocating the air at the Hangar and putting a final spike into the coffin that was the game.
This time it was Lynden Lakovic with a high-sticking call.
Tanner Howe stuck it to Moose Jaw when he put the Pats up by 3.
Interestingly enough, Parker Berge assisted on all 4 Pats goals. His brother, Owen, is a Warrior.
(Look at these sweethearts. Owen & Parker Berge. Parker recorded 4 assists in the game.)
Firkus added a late goal, for his second of the game, but it was far too little and far too late.
Final Score: 4-2 Pats.
Post Game Comments and Thoughts
I go back-and-forth on the 2023-2024 Warriors.
After they made those deals for Kalem Parker and Brayden Schuurmann, I figured that was them signalling that they were “going for it.”
But after witnessing the last two games, both of which should have been relatively routine wins for a team with Moose Jaw’s talent, I just don’t see a very consistent and disciplined hockey team.
These were all the same problems they struggled with last year.
What I’m saying is.
They haven’t addressed their problems.
Those problems will need to be addressed to win a championship.
And teams that win championships don’t often make it through the first 11 games barely above .500 and still riddled with very apparent and debilitating flaws.
Either way you cut it, the Warriors squad we’ve seen so far is nowhere near good enough to win a championship.
They way they look now they might not even be a playoff team.