WHL Moose Jaw Warriors

Warriors Open Weekend with Trip to Brandon Friday

Published on November 19, 2021 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Moose Jaw Warriors News Release


After a week of practice at Mosaic Place, the Moose Jaw Warriors are hitting the road to Brandon to take on the Wheat Kings for the first time this season.

"It's going to be a tough matchup for sure, we had some tough nights against them last year in the [Subway WHL Hub] and there's a lot of returning players," Warriors head coach Mark O'Leary said after Thursday's practice.

The Warriors head into the weekend well rested after taking three out of four points against Edmonton and Lethbridge on home ice last weekend.

Captain Daemon Hunt said the team has built some confidence coming out of those two games.

"We played some good hockey, Edmonton's a good team, we should have come out harder in the third and they capitalized on it, but we played good against Lethbridge too," Hunt said.

Last weekend's games ended a stretch of six games in 12 days for the Warriors, who have been off from game action since Sunday's win over the Hurricanes.

O'Leary said the Warriors should benefit from the extra practice time.

"The timing of that is good. We were happy with the last weekend, three out of four points is good, but we're certainly not satisfied," he said.

"We were talking about it through practice this weekend, we want to play with the better teams up in the top of the conference and not settle just being middle of the pack, so it was good to get a couple practices in this week and get the details down."

In both games last weekend, the Warriors held early leads, but allowed both the Oil Kings and Hurricanes to battle back into the games.

Heading into this weekend's matchups against the Wheat Kings and Regina Pats, Hunt said the team is focusing on playing a complete game.

"We haven't been playing good hockey in the third period, we've been coming out slow," he said. "It's easy to say just right now, but we really have to harp it in the room, if we're up or down going into the third period, we're playing to win every single shift."

After the strong showing against the two Central Division teams last weekend, the Warriors now return to East Division action against the Wheat Kings on Friday and the Pats on Saturday.

While Brandon sits at the bottom of the East Division, O'Leary said they're a team that the Warriors can't take lightly.

"They have a lot of skill, we have to be ready to be on the right side of the puck and they're starting to get healthy now, so it will be a tough matchup," he said.

Ridly Greig leads the way for the Wheat Kings and Hunt said he's looking forward to matching up against the skilled forward.

"Ridly's got a lot of skill, but if we take away his ice, it's going to benefit us, when he's got room with the puck, it's not very good with his speed and skill," he said. "Just being in his face the whole game, making him get upset and that will bring us more success."

The Warriors and Wheat Kings face-off on Friday night at 7 p.m. at Westoba Place in Brandon.

Moose Jaw returns home on Saturday night to host the Pats for Hockey Fights Cancer Night at Mosaic Place. Get your tickets at mjwarriors.ca.

Check out the Moose Jaw Warriors Statistics

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Western Hockey League Stories from November 19, 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.

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