A Moose Jaw Warriors team that will not be in the playoffs punched well above their weight class against the Wheat Kings at Westoba Place. But thanks to some clutch performances from veterans, the Wheat Kings still left the rink with two big points.
Caleb Hadland scored twice, and Jordan Gavin and Luke Shipley scored once each in a 4-1 Wheat Kings’ win. Carson Bjarnason turned aside 32 of 33 shots he faced in the win.
“I didn’t love it,” said Wheat Kings’ head coach and GM Marty Murray. “I was kind of hoping we could make it a little easier on ourselves. We got up by two. There was some sloppy play, especially in the first period, but we found a way to get it done.”
The Wheat Kings opened the scoring on a funny goal, when Warriors’ netminder Josh Banini got tangled up with two players and went down. Before he could get back up, Hadland took a feed in the slot from Gavin and casually lifted it home.
Early in the second, Hadland struck again. Nolan Flamand won a faceoff in the offensive zone during a penalty kill, and Hadland drove the middle before sniping his 25th of the season and third shorthanded goal.
On another power play, however, Moose Jaw had their answer. Krzysztof Macias flipped the puck to himself, split the defense, and lifted home a forehand shot to finish off an end-to-end rush and break the seal for the Warriors.
Though their power play couldn’t break through for them, the Wheat Kings would get their two-goal lead back. Gavin picked off an errant pass in the slot and ripped it on goal. Banini got a piece of it, but not enough as Gavin put the Wheat Kings up by two for good.
When Moose Jaw was forced to take the risk of pulling their goaltender, the Wheat Kings cashed in. Roger McQueen won the draw straight back to Shipley, and the veteran defenseman lofted it into the empty net for the 4-1 lead.
There was some bad blood in the game, and the two teams will have a chance to air it out immediately. They face off again tomorrow, this time in Moose Jaw, at 8:00 Central.
