WHL Moose Jaw Warriors

Warriors Host Pats in First of 10 Meetings this Season

Published on October 8, 2021 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Moose Jaw Warriors News Release


The first instalment of the 2021-22 version of the Trans-Canada Clash hits the ice at Mosaic Place on Friday night.

The Moose Jaw Warriors and Regina Pats will meet 10 times over the course of this Western Hockey League season.

"It's always fun [facing off with the Pats]," Warriors forward Atley Calvert said after practice on Thursday. "The intensity always ramps up to another level, it's a blast."

The Warriors are coming off a home-and-home split with the Saskatoon Blades on the opening weekend of the WHL season, winning 7-1 at home and falling 4-2 in the Bridge City.

Head coach Mark O'Leary said the Warriors have built over the course of the six periods they've played this season.

"We had a slow start, which is expected, there was nerves being in front of our home crowd for the first time, but now the big thing for is we got better as the weekend went on," he said.

"The result wasn't there in game two, but still like where our game progressed to and we've had a real good week of practice."

Regina comes into Friday's game off a 5-2 loss in Winnipeg on Wednesday and sitting at 2-1-0-0 on the season.

O'Leary said the Pats play an energetic and physical game and the Warriors are going to need to match them.

"I like to think that we're a pretty high energy team too," he said.

"We need to weather that early pressure for Regina, make sure that we have two on the puck before they do and then our skill levels will be able to take over."

Calvert said the Warriors are going to need to match the Pats' work ethic to have success.

"They work hard, they're a heavy physical team and we just got to outwork them and get to the net," he said.

A lot of eyes will be on the 16-year-old showdown between Brayden Yager and Connor Bedard, who were selected third and first overall, respectively, in the 2020 WHL Bantam Draft.

Both players have three goals this season. Yager scored all three in the home opener, becoming the first Warriors' 16-year-old to record a hat trick in his home debut.

In three head-to-head matchups last season in the Subway WHL Hub, Yager finished with two goals and four points, while Bedard posted one goal and four points.

Yager said earlier this week that the two players had been texting back-and-forth ahead of the matchup.

"No trash talk, just buddy talk," he said. "It's been cool leading up to this game, it's always fun playing the Pats."

The Warriors and Pats face-off at 7 p.m. on Friday night. Voice of the Warriors James Gallo will have all the action for you live on Country 100, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 6:40 p.m.

You can also tune into the game on WHL Live with the Mosaic Pre-Game Show starting at 6:50 p.m. on IKS Media Warriors Live.

Check out the Moose Jaw Warriors Statistics

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Western Hockey League Stories from October 8, 2021


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central