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WHL Moose Jaw Warriors

Warriors Battle Pats on Tuesday Night

October 17, 2023 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Moose Jaw Warriors News Release


Moose Jaw, SK - For the first time this season, the Trans-Canada Clash comes to the Hangar.

The Moose Jaw Warriors host the Regina Pats on Tuesday night at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.

"They're our highway rivals, so it's going to be a good one," Warriors forward Lynden Lakovic said.

"Judging by today's practice, it was quite easy [for the team to get up for a showdown with the Pats]," Warriors head coach Mark O'Leary said after Monday's practice.

"We know what to expect from Regina tomorrow, they've had a lot of success this year and it's no different than [Prince Albert] and Lethbridge, they check hard, they make life real difficult for you and we need to be ready."

The Warriors are coming off a weekend split against the Hurricanes and Raiders. Moose Jaw skated to a 4-3 win over Lethbridge on Friday, but fell 6-3 to Prince Albert on Saturday.

In Saturday's game, the Warriors fired 48 shots on the Raiders' net, but ran into a hot goaltender.

"For the most part, we dominated the game, there's always going to be nights like that in the season where the goalie plays really well and we just got to push through some adversity," Lakovic said.

O'Leary said the Warriors can build off their offensive game, but need to focus on strengthening defensively.

"There was a real urgency to win the game and generate offence, but we're looking for that same urgency coming back the other way," he said. "Oftentimes if you just start with the forecheck, do the work before you have to, before the puck's coming back towards your end and you end up playing in the o-zone anyway, so it's just being a little bit more assertive without the puck and we'll have more fun with it."

The Warriors has won both meetings against the Pats so far this season, winning 4-2 and 4-3 in overtime in Regina last month.

Lakovic said if the Warriors stick to their game plan, they will be able to have success.

"They play a hard game, they're a rush team, they score most of their goals on the rush and they just shoot everything, so I feel if we cover the middle of the ice, track well, we'll get opportunities off the rushes and just need to capitalize on them," he said.

The Warriors and Pats face-off at 7 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre. Click here to purchase tickets.

If you can't make it to the game, tune in on CHL TV and Country 100, starting with the Pre-Game Show on IKS Media Warriors Live at 6:45 p.m. on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

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Western Hockey League Stories from October 17, 2023


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