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WHL Moose Jaw Warriors

'There's a Lot of Anticipation for this Season': Warriors Host Blades in Home Opener

October 1, 2021 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Moose Jaw Warriors News Release


After 570 days away, the Moose Jaw Warriors return to Mosaic Place on Friday night.

"We haven't played for our fans for two years now, so it's exciting times and we're all pumped up for it," Warriors forward Ryder Korczak said after practice on Thursday.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused the end of the 2019-20 regular season to be cancelled and forced the Warriors to head into the Subway WHL Hub last season for 24 games at the Brandt Centre in Regina.

When the Warriors host the Saskatoon Blades to open the 2021-22 regular season, the team won't be taking for granted what it means to play in front of its home crowd.

"It's extremely exciting to be back in the city," Captain Daemon Hunt said.

A lot has changed in those 570 days for the Warriors.

When the 2019-20 season ended, Moose Jaw found itself in last place in the East Division with just 14 wins in 62 games.

After a year of development in the Hub, the Warriors are expecting big things out of themselves this season.

"There's a lot of anticipation for this season, there are guys that have been together for three years now, so they're excited," Warriors head coach Mark O'Leary said.

"They take a lot of pride in how tight they are as a group and now they want to do it on the ice."

The Warriors' lineup will look a lot different from the last one to play a regular season game in Moose Jaw.

Young stars like Brayden Yager, Jagger Firkus and Denton Mateychuk found their place with the team last season and have joined returnees like Korczak and Hunt.

Hunt said the team came together well during the Hub and will look to build off that going into this season.

"We have to be extremely hard to play against," Hunt said. "Having that good physical presence and being extremely hard on the forecheck, making their defence work and skate and having that shoot mentality and just having that full 60-minute game is going to be really big for us."

Korczak agrees that consistency and being a hard team to play against will be the biggest factors in any success that the Warriors have in 2021-22.

"Competitiveness and just playing fast, if we do those two things, we can have a very successful team," he said.

The Warriors put together a strong 4-1 record during the preseason, earning wins over the Brandon Wheat Kings, Swift Current Broncos and Regina Pats.

"I really liked the execution," O'Leary said. "I liked the effort from day one and competitiveness , but as you get going and you start to understand what you're doing now you can do it a little bit quicker and a little crisper and that's where I feel we're at right now."

The Warriors and Blades face-off in the Winmar Home Opener at 7 p.m. on Friday night at Mosaic Place.

Tickets for the season opener are available here or the Mosaic Place Box Office.

You can catch all the action live on Country 100 with Voice of the Warriors James Gallo. The Pre-Game Show kicks things off at 6:40 p.m.

The game will also be available on WHL Live with a Warriors exclusive pre-game and post-game show throughout the season.

Check out the Moose Jaw Warriors Statistics



Western Hockey League Stories from October 1, 2021


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