Not A Good Look for New Look Warriors
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Anguish
After a relaxing week off to clean their wounds and put a little window of time between the team and the stormy scandal a-brew, your Moose Jaw Warriors were back on the ice at The Hangar to battle the league’s toughest team; the Winnipeg Ice.
The team looks rather different than it did just a few weeks ago.
As you may know, the Warriors will be without starting goalie Connor Ungar, NHL prospect defenceman Max Wanner, as well as prospects Marek Howell and Lynden Lakovic indefinitely.
There is an investigation underway in regards to them.
In the meantime, Max Finley and Sam Borschowa would make their WHL debuts.
Borschowa is a star defence man for the Notre Dame Hounds.
Finley is a 16 year old who has been biding his time with the AAA Okanagan Rockets.
They also looked different because they had on these freshly designed, creamy Hall-of-Fame themed jerseys that they’d never worn before.
Robert Baco in Hall-of-Fame jersey. Bobzilla got punted. Game Misconduct for questionable hit - phpto credit Moose Jaw Warriors Twitter
Winnipeg wasted no time putting the puck past a struggling Jackson Unger.
In Unger’s last outing he looked shaky, allowing 8 goals on 27 shots against the Regina Pats; so attacking him early was a really common sense game plan for the Ice. Winnipeg scored on him 4 times in 14 shots before Mark O’Leary had to pull him out of the game.
In Unger’s place we were treated to another rookie debut in his place: Justen Maric.
Maric was in the net for about four minutes, before he too allowed a goal.
Justen Maric made his rookie debut with the Warriors
With goals from Jonas Woo, Vladislav Shilo, Owen Pederson, Carson Lambos and Carson Latimer, Winnipeg cruised to a 5-0 lead before the end of the first period.
Things got even worse in period two.
Matthew Savoie scored almost immediately, increasing the large lead even further.
Winnipeg was doing a fantastic job letting everybody have a chance to score.
Savoie was the sixth scorer.
Ben Zloty made it 7-0 on seven different scorers late in the frame.
Finishing off the Royal Flush.
Robert Baco was awarded a Game Misconduct in the game, for an excessive hit-from-behind on an Ice player.
So, adding salt to the wound.
The Warriors will now be missing Bobzilla their next game. I don’t see how that’s gonna help.
Brayden Yager did end up scoring one, so the Warriors didn’t get shut out.
Yager took advantage of a Zach Benson Cross Checking penalty and finally beat Sam Hauser. Ryder Korczak and Jagger Firkus assisted on the goal.
…and that’s how it ended.
Winnipeg 7, Moose Jaw 1.
Zach Benson had 2 Assists
It was an ugly game.
Things don’t look very good for the Warriors right now.
Connor Ungar had been their most valuable player all season long.
Without him in net and without Max Wanner playing defence in front of him, it portends to an ugly future for the tribe.
They’re a team that gives up a lot of shots.
Connor Ungar has a Save % of .942.
He is legitimately one of the best goalies in the WHL, by every metric.
He turns away a lot of offence, every single night.
Whether Jackson Unger will be able to keep up with that workload remains to be seen.
It certainly hasn’t looked promising in their last two outings.
Tom Sullivan “Anguish”
Moose Jaw will attempt to end the slump tomorrow night in Prince Albert, when they battle the Raiders.
