MOOSEJAWEXPRESS.COM • Wednesday, January 15, 2020 • PAGE A23
Saturday, January 18 @ 7:00pm
VS
Share your team’s news, pictures and results with us!
email: editor@mjvexpress.com
Warriors looking for first win after massive changes
Losses to Eastern Conference-leading Edmonton, Medicine Hat in first three games after coaching change, blockbuster trade Randy Palmer - Moose Jaw Express
With many recent changes in the team, the Moose Jaw Warriors new-look squad will be gunning for their first win this coming weekend. The Western Hockey League team lost three contests after a busy week of changes saw head coach Tim Hunter relieved of his duties; Mark O’Leary took over as bench boss and a series of massive trades saw the entire complexion of the team change in a single day (see related stories). The coaching change had barely had a chance to settle when the Warriors were back on the ice, falling 7-4 to the Eastern Conference-leading Edmonton Oil Kings. The trades happened a day later and followed with a 5-2 to the Medicine Hat Tigers before the Warriors returned home to drop a 7-5 decision in a rematch with the Tigers. As a result, the Warriors sit with an 11-25-2-0 mark on the season and remain three points ahead of last-place Swift Current, five points back of Regina and 19 points out of the second wild card playoff spot. Edmonton 7, Warriors 4 Warriors goaltender Boston Bilous played his first game for the Tribe since joining the team from the Prince Albert Raiders and faced a ton of rubber in the early going – Edmonton outshot the Warriors 20-8 in the first and 35-9 by the midway point of the game. He’d cap the night with a 47-save performance in a tough loss to the powerhouse Oil Kings. Kyle Crosbie – with his first as a Warrior – and Calder Anderson scored for Moose Jaw in the second period. Brayden Tracey would score his final goal as a Warrior late in the third before Owen Hardy finished things off
Warriors forward Cade Hayes looks on after tipping the puck past Tigers goaltender Mats Sogaard. for the Tribe. “It wasn’t the result we wanted tonight, but we saw a lot of good things out there and I think we all rallied around Mark,” Crosbie said. “It’s obviously big news losing a head coach, but Mark did a good job getting us ready and I think for the most part we answered the bell tonight.” Medicine Hat 5, Warriors 2 Logan Doust scored his first goal as a member of the Warriors and Owen Hardy added another only two minutes later early in the third as the Warriors shocked the Tigers with a quick 2-0 lead. Medicine Hat would get one back before the period was out and that’s where the score would remain until the third, where the Tigers would score twice, including the game-winner from Brett Kemp with 4:50 remaining in the game. The Tigers would add two empty net goals in the final
two minutes to close out scoring. Bilous had another extremely busy game, facing 49 shots, while the Warriors fired 22 at Medicine Hat. Medicine Hat 7, Warriors 5 After Cade Hayes scored his first goal as a Warrior only 50 seconds into the game, it was all Tigers the rest of the period in the rematch the next night at Mosaic Place. Medicine Hat would fire 30 shots at goaltender Brock Gould in the first frame of his first game with the Tribe and take a 4-1 lead out of the opening period. Hayes and Ryder Korczak would get two back in the second, but the Tigers would also score a pair to lead 6-3 through two. Still, the Warriors wouldn’t go away, with goals from Doust and Garrett Wright making things interesting in the final minutes until the final buzzer. “We’re going to take our lumps every now and then since we’re a young team learning our way,” said O’Leary. “But the message is that losing can’t become easy, we can’t accept it but we can certainly learn from it. We’re going to let it sting a little bit, but at the same time there are a lot of new faces in that room and we want them to gel together and get a little bit of success to help with that.” Gould would finish the game with 36 saves, Bilous turned aside 10 shots the rest of the way after the Tigers’ seventh goal. The Warriors are back in action Friday, Jan. 17 when they host the Prince George Cougars. Game time is 7 p.m. at Mosaic Place.
Warriors make series of roster moves
Tribe add Sass, waive Mohr, release Homola on Saturday night as trade deadline moves closer Moose Jaw Warriors general manager Alan Millar has never been one to pass up a deal he feels will make his team better – even if it means dipping into senior hockey league rosters. The Warriors announced Saturday that they had acquired 20-year-old defenceman Carson Sass from the Grenfell Spitfires of the Qu’Appelle Valley Hockey League in exchange for, well, nothing, in one of the more unique Tribe deals as of late.
Randy Palmer - Moose Jaw Warriors Sass – a 6-foot-1, 187-pound Melville Twitter they had sent Sass down to the product with 234 games of WHL experi- Warriors to ‘work on his game’. ence under his belt – had spent most of Sass spent the previous three seasons in the season with the Kelowna Rockets and Red Deer before joining Kelowna, where even had an assist in their 5-4 overtime he had two assists in 31 games. win in Moose Jaw on Dec. 14. He was re- To make room on their roster, the Warriors leased by the Rockets a short time later waived 20-year-old forward Kobe Mohr and had actually played a single game for prior to his reporting to Drumheller of the the Spitfires in the QVHL prior to being Alberta Junior Hockey League. Mohr had picked up by the Warriors. played eight games for the Dragons earThe Spitfires themselves didn’t miss the lier this season, racking up six goals and opportunity to have some fun, saying on 11 points in that span. He was acquired
by the Warriors in the Jadon Joseph trade on Nov. 24 and had played nine games for Moose Jaw, scoring twice and putting up three points. The Warriors also announced they had released Czech import David Homola. The 18-year-old rearguard had been acquired from Tri-City off waivers on Oct. 7 and had two assists in 17 games with the Tribe. Moose Jaw is back in action on Tuesday, Dec. 31 when they host the Brandon Wheat Kings.