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WHL Moose Jaw Warriors

Preview: Warriors Set to Host U.S. Division for First Time in Four Years

October 28, 2022 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Moose Jaw Warriors News Release


Riding a three-game winning streak, the Moose Jaw Warriors are preparing for an unknown this weekend.

For the first time in 983 days, the Warriors will square off with teams from the Western Hockey League's U.S. Division, as the Everett Silvertips and Tri-City Americans come to the Hangar.

"I'm very excited," said Warriors forward Jagger Firkus, who will be taking on the Silvertips and Americans for the first time in his WHL career.

"It's kind of cool to get new competition coming into Moose Jaw and you hear a lot about the structure of the U.S. teams, so I'm super excited to see that and go up against that."

Friday's game against Everett will mark the first time in 1,464 days that the Silvertips have played a game in downtown Moose Jaw.

The Silvertips bring a ton of talent into town with them, including two of the top scorers in the WHL, Austin Roest and Jackson Berezowski, who sit second and seventh in the league in scoring.

Anaheim Ducks second round pick Owen Zellweger also patrols the blueline for Everett.

"It will be great to get some different uniforms in the building, I know the fans will enjoy that," Warriors head coach Mark O'Leary said.

"Dennis Williams and his teams in Everett, you know what you're going to get. They're very structured, they're detailed and diligent in what they do and they have some guys that have some firepower up front too."

Only Eric Alarie, Josh Hoekstra and Cole Jordan were on the Warriors the last time that the team played teams from the Western Conference during the 2019-20 season, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Firkus said it's a welcomed challenge to figure out some new competition.

"You don't really know their systems, you don't know how they play, you don't know some of their best players as well, so you're going to have to get used to it pretty quick," he said.

The Warriors are coming off a 2-1 win in Regina on Wednesday. The team is playing some of its best hockey of the season with three straight wins and victories in four of their last six games.

O'Leary said the past two wins against Regina were two different types of games and showed the team is capable of adapting to the game in front of them.

"You have to learn to win different ways," he said. "We want to start building our game in terms of being able to win those one-goal games. To be successful over 60 games, you have to win different ways and that was a good example."

Firkus said the Warriors are gaining momentum with their play over the past few weeks.

"Our whole team is playing really good from the start to finish," he said.

With two fresh opponents coming into the Hangar this weekend, O'Leary said the biggest key for the Warriors is to remain focused on the game in front of them.

"The job remains the same," he said. "When we finish on top of our man, that gives us a chance and our job really is to create offence, but it starts with what you're doing without the puck, so when we don't have the puck, we want to get it back as fast as we can and that means being on the right side of your check."

The Warriors and Silvertips meet on Friday night at 7 p.m. and then the following night Moose Jaw will host the Americans at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.

Tune into the IKS Media Warriors Live Pre-Game and Post-Game Shows on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube. The Pre-Game Show hits the air at 6:45 p.m.

Check out the Moose Jaw Warriors Statistics



Western Hockey League Stories from October 28, 2022


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