Warriors top players even series with Ice 1-1

Brayden Yager had three points for the Warriors on Saturday.

The Moose Jaw Warriors top guns got their series with the Winnipeg Ice all even at 1-1.

On Saturday playing before 1,872 spectators at the Wayne Fleming Arena in Winnipeg, the Warriors stormed out to a 4-0 lead and downed the host Ice 5-3 in Game 2 of their best-of-seven WHL Eastern Conference semifinal series. With the win, the Warriors even the series at 1-1.

Games 3 and 4 go Tuesday and Wednesday respectively at 7 p.m. both nights at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.

Saturday’s Game 2 battle was a wild one that had an edge to it as well. By the 9:31 mark of the opening frame, the Warriors built a 4-0 off a pair of goals from Brayden Yager and singles from Ryder Korczak and Martin Rysavy.

The Ice pulled star starting goaltender Daniel Hauser after the first period with him having stopped 7-of-11 shots fired his way taking the setback in net for the host side. Mason Beaupit, who is a 19-year-old veteran backup, played the rest of the way in relief turning away all eight shots he faced.

The teams proceeded to play through a scoreless second. In third, the Ice struck for three straight goals to cut the Warriors lead to 4-3. Zack Ostapchuk netted a goal 67 seconds into the frame, Connor McClennon tallied at the 13:09 mark and Carson Latimer scored at the 16:10 mark. Latimer was playing in his first game since suffering an injury in the Ice’s 8-1 victory over the Oil Kings in Edmonton on February 26, 2023.

The Ice weren’t able to complete the comeback. With 2.4 seconds remaining in the third, Josh Hoekstra scored into an empty net to cement the 5-3 win for the Warriors.

Ryder Korczak had a goal and an assist for the Warriors.

Connor Ungar, who is the Warriors star overage netminder, stopped 33 shots to pick up the win in the Moose Jaw net.

Yager had an assist to go with his two goals. Korczak had an assist to go with his marker. Atley Calvert had a pair of assists for the Moose Jaw side.

Matthew Savoie had a pair of assists for the Ice.

Saturday’s contest had its share of rough stuff. Ice 18-year-old right-winger Evan Friesen was given a major penalty for checking to the head and a game misconduct at the 7:45 mark of the opening frame. The infraction will trigger an automatic review by the WHL office for a possible suspension.

The Warriors scored three goals on the power play resulting from Friesen’s infraction accounting for the final three tallies of the four-goal surge in the opening frame. The second power-play goal came on a five-on-three advantage due to Ice star centre Zach Benson being given a high-sticking minor.

At the 14:01 mark of the first, McClennon engaged in a fight with Warriors defenceman Marek Howell. The fight occurred after McClennon hit a Warriors player from behind. McClennon was given a checking from behind minor and a fighting major, while Howell received an unsportsmanlike conduct minor and a fighting major.

Calvert proceeded be given a double minor for slew-footing at the 15:07 mark of the first. That infraction will be automatically reviewed by the WHL office for a possible suspension.

Warriors defenceman Matthew Gallant left Saturday’s game and didn’t return after being on the receiving end of Friesen’s head shot. Moose Jaw played the third period without defenceman Logan Dowhaniuk, who was hit from behind by Ice overage left-winger Owen Pederson in the second period. Pederson was given a minor for checking from behind on the play.

The two squads combined for 53 minutes in penalties on Saturday.

Atley Calvert had two assists for the Warriors on Saturday.

Last year, the Ice eliminated the Warriors in an Eastern Conference semifinal with a 4-1 series victory. That series ultimately set up the rivalry for this year’s series as both squads returned a large number of players from a season ago.

In the 2022-23 regular season, the Ice finished first overall with a 57-10-1 mark and were rated third in the final CHL Top 10 rankings. The Warriors finished seventh overall in the WHL with a 41-24-03 mark. The Ice and Warriors split their six regular season encounters with each side claiming three wins with one Winnipeg victory coming in overtime.

The Ice took Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semifinal between the two sides 5-3 on Friday at the Wayne Fleming Arena.

Odds are high there will be more twists and turns in this series as it goes along.

Adventures in officiating part one

A referee waves off a Regina goal in Game 3 of Blades versus Pats.

It seems like the officials have been challenged in these WHL Playoffs so far as much as the players and coaches of the teams have.

One of the first challenging situations that occurred in this post-season that I saw came in Game 3 of the first round series between the Regina Pats and Saskatoon Blades playing at the Brandt Centre in Regina on April 4.

With 3:55 remaining in the first period, Pats 17-year-old phenom centre Connor Bedard drove home a midrange shot to give the Pats what appeared to be a 3-1 lead. The goal went to a video review, and it was disallowed due to the Saskatoon net being dislodged.

The Pats did go up on the Blade 3-1 in the third before the visitors rallied back to take the contest 4-3 in overtime.

A lot of people thought Bedard’s disallowed goal should have stood up, because officials should have had the discretion to estimate where the net was, if it was slightly ajar.

The video review showed the net had been ajar for a lengthy stretch before Bedard scored. Due to the net being off for an extended period, the goal had to be disallowed.

By league rules, the officials got this call right after video review. They did their job and showed what that situation can look like when it plays out on the ice.

It can be argued that rule can be changed. If a team in the offensive zone has puck advantage and the defending team’s goal is slightly off, it can be argued officials should have discretion to allow play to continue until the defending team touches the puck. That will allow the offensive squad to have a scoring chance until losing possession of the puck.

With that noted, that is an item for discussion in league meetings for off-season rule changes.

Adventures in officiating part two

Pats fans react to a goal review going in their team’s favour in Game 6.

The second big challenging situation I’ve seen for the officials in the current WHL Playoffs comes from the double review.

This one came in Game 6 of the first round series between the Saskatoon Blades and host Regina Pats at the Brandt Centre on April 8.

With 8:36 remaining in the third period, Pats centre Zackary Shantz scored to increase the host side’s lead to 5-3. The tally came when a pass from Pats left-winger Riley Ginnell deflected off Shantz’s skate into the Saskatoon net.

The officials went to a video review and waved off the goal saying it was kicked in. Access Communications, which is based in Regina, was showing the game to their provincial network on television on their own channel.

Tim Tisdale was the WHL supervisor for that contest, and he asked Access Communications if they had more angles than the WHL video review booth had of the play in question. After seeing the Access Communications video, the officials changed their ruling to saying Shantz’s goal was good.

Access Communications put their video of that goal on Twitter, and it was clear from the overhead shot Shantz didn’t kick the puck in and the goal was good. The 5-3 score in favour of the Pats held up as the game’s final outcome.

How the video review process went down here didn’t sit well with some Blades fans.

In this situation, credit has to be given to Tisdale for thinking outside the box to find a way to get that call right.

With that said, the WHL policy of using television network feed for video review is something that should be revisited in league meetings in the off-season. I myself have to admit I am not sure what the WHL’s exact policy is regarding using television network video for video reviews.

For a lengthy stretch, WHL games in the regular season and post-season were shown on Shaw on a regular basis. Shaw pulled out of its TV contract with the WHL following the end of the 2016-17 campaign. Since it has been so long since WHL games were shown on a regular basis on a television network, I’m not even sure what the rules are and assume some policy has to be in place from when WHL contests were shown on Shaw.

Thanks to Access Communications, the Pats are the only team that gets regular television exposure even with it being limited to the geographic region in Saskatchewan that Access Communications provides service for. Their volunteer camera crew did well to get the footage that showed definitively that Shantz’s goal was good.

With that noted, Pats have more of a replay advantage due to the fact a number of their games are shown by Access Communications due to more camera angles being available. The decision makers in the WHL will have to decide if video reviews for all games are limited to the same camera angles supplied by the league for video review or if television angles will be allowed for the minority of contests shown on television networks.

Again, that is another thing that has to be discussed in off-season league meetings. I should note this was the first time I saw a double video review happen in a game for the same aspect on one play in the 24 seasons I’ve covered the league.

Adventures in officiating part three

The third biggest challenging situation in officiating I’ve encounter in the WHL Playoffs is recent one.

This one came on Friday in Game 1 of an Eastern Conference semifinal series between the Red Deer Rebels and host Saskatoon Blades played at the SaskTel Centre.

With 9:21 remaining in the first period, the officials were trying to determine of the Rebels were guilty of a high-sticking infraction. When play was stopped in the Red Deer end, the officials had a conference in the corner with a lineman bringing up the observation of a high-sticking infraction, when Blades utility player Spencer Shugrue went down.

After a few seconds, one of the referees made the high-sticking penalty infraction call. The problem was they appeared to not know what Rebels player to call the penalty on.

Since the high-sticking penalty was linesman call, officials go to video review to determine if a high-sticking infraction did happen.

The stoppage to discuss the possible penalty lasted about 10 minutes and saw the officials place Rebels import right-winger Frantisek Formanek into the penalty box and then let him out of the box a couple of minutes later. Formanek looked visibly confused through the whole situation.

When play resumed with no penalty being called, an announcement went up in the building that there was no penalty for high sticking, because a Blades player high sticked himself. After the contest, the coaching staffs of both teams said they were given the same explanation by the officials.

On Saturday, a Blades fan Twitter account put up a still photo from the WHL stream video broadcast of the game of the play in question. It showed Rebels right-winger Jhett Larson had his stick high on Shugrue. It is possible Larson’s stick misses Shugrue and goes over top his head from what was shown on the still image.

When I was at this game, I missed part of the play and just saw Shugrue go down. I’d have to see the full replay of the play to make any determinations about it. The replay was shown quickly twice on the SaskTel Centre scoreboard, and I missed those looks keeping my eyes on the officials conference.

One issue on this play was that if a lineman saw a high stick he didn’t get the number of the offending player. You can kind of deduct that is what happened with the decision to put Formanek in the box and then let him out of the box.

In this situation, I suspect an error was made, and that is going to happen with officiating. This was the first time I’ve seen this sort of situation occur in the 24 seasons I’ve covered the league.

Outside of that instance, I thought the officials’ crew did a really good job in Game 1. I know there are ultra-passionate fans who will disagree and that opinion is fine to have too.

From this situation, the officials’ crew just review that play at game’s end to go over positioning to see what they can do better. Officials’ crews always do that after WHL games.

Svozil’s Pats days could be done, other notes

Stanislav Svozil’s time in the WHL appears to be done.

It appears Stanislav Svozil’s days with the Regina Pats have come to an end.

On Wednesday, it was announced Svozil would be joining the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets for their final two regular season games. The Blue Jackets added offensive-defenceman from Czechia to their roster after the Pats were eliminated from the WHL Playoffs with a 4-1 loss in Game 7 of their first round series against the host Saskatoon Blades on Monday.

Svozil, who has a signed NHL entry-level contact, made his Blue Jackets debut as they hosted the Pittsburgh Penguins on Thursday at Nationwide Arena. Svozil picked up an assist on the Blue Jackets goal that created a 2-2 tie with 3:25 remaining in the third period and ultimately forced overtime. The Blue Jackets claimed a 3-2 victory in overtime on a goal by Johnny Gaudreau.

Svozil finished with that one helper and an even rating in the plus-minus department skating for 19 minutes and 13 seconds of total ice time.

On Friday, the Blue Jackets concluded their season dropping a 5-2 decision to the visiting Buffalo Sabres at Nationwide Arena. Svozil wasn’t able to collect any points and posted a minus-three rating in 21 minutes and one second of total ice time.

Following that contest, the Blue Jackets assigned Svozil to their AHL affiliate in the Cleveland Monsters in time for their clash on Saturday with the host Rochester Americans. He recorded two assists in the Monsters 4-3 victory.

With the Pats in 2022-23, Svozil, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 182 pounds, had an outstanding season collecting 11 goals and 67 assists for 78 points to go with a plus-23 rating in 56 regular season games. In the Pats seven post-season contests, Svozil recorded four goals and nine assists for 13 points to go with a plus-seven rating.

Svozil, who turned 20-years-old on January 17, helped Czechia win silver at this past world juniors held in Halifax, N.S., and Moncton, N.B. He had one goal and seven assists in seven games at that event.

Since Svozil will be 20-years-old in the 2023-24 campaign, the Blue Jackets can keep him on their roster or assign him to their minor league affiliates.

• Is it me or are the Saskatoon Blades attracting challenging officials’ calls in some weird and spooky supernatural way in the WHL Playoffs?
• Over the past 13 year, the mainstream media has all but eliminated full time WHL beat writing positions. Sometimes, that will cause some confusion regarding the interpretation of WHL rules. Back in the day, it was common for some of those writers to interview WHL vice-president of hockey Richard Doerksen about rule changes that were being brought in for an upcoming campaign right before a season starts. While pieces on rules are often dry and were housekeeping style pieces, people did read them.
• On Wednesday, the WHL fined both the Saskatoon Blades and Regina Pats $250 each for warmup violations before Game 7 of their first round playoff series on Monday at the SaskTel Centre. The Blades took that contest 4-1.
• On Saturday, Regina Pats forward and Prince Albert product Tanner Howe, Spokane Chiefs centre and Saskatoon product Berkly Catton and Kelowna Rockets defenceman and Saskatoon product Caden Price were named to Canada’s roster for the upcoming world under-18 men’s hockey championship. That event will be played from April 20 to 30 in Basel and Porrentruy, Switzerland.
• On Saturday, the Washington Capitals announced left-winger Alexander Suzdalev had been assigned to their AHL affiliate the Hershey Bears for the remainder of the season. Suzdalev, who turned 19-years-old on March 5, had 38 goals and 48 assists for 86 points to go with a minus-four rating in 66 regular season games with the Pats in 2022-23. He picked up three goals and seven assists to go with a plus-two rating in their seven post-season contests. Suzdalev has a signed NHL entry-level contract with the Capitals.
• On Saturday, the Seattle Thunderbirds and Kamloops Blazers took 2-0 leads in their respective best-of-seven Western Conference semifinal series. The Thunderbirds defeated the visiting Prince George Cougars 5-1 in Game 2 of their series at the ShoWare Centre. The Blazers blanked the visiting Portland Winterhawks 5-0 in Game 2 of their series at the Sandman Centre.
• On April 9, I had new content appear on the Howe Happening blog that supports the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. I put together a piece on Donovan Dale, who is a popular Ignite Athletics coach and a former member of the CJFL’s Saskatoon Hilltops and U Sports’ University of Saskatchewan Huskies Football Team, taking up weightlifting to get back into competitive sports. That piece can be found by clicking right here. I also created a piece on the Western Canadian Baseball League returning to Saskatoon with a team to start playing at Cairns Field on the Complex grounds in May 2024. That piece can be found by clicking right here.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Warriors’ skill opportunistic in OT win over Blades

Saskatoon holds 43-17 edge in shots on goal in loss

The Warriors celebrate an OT winner from Maximus Wanner, left.

The Moose Jaw Warriors took a page out of the script of the 2000s era Calgary Flames of Jarome Iginla and Miikka Kiprusoff when it came to winning a hockey game.

That meant the script for victory required your goaltender to make an extraordinary amount of saves, while a skilled guy pumped in some timely offence. Facing the host Saskatoon Blades on Wednesday night at the SaskTel Centre, the Warriors received a 39 save performance from star overage netminder Connor Ungar and a four point night from star right-winger Atley Calvert, who had two goals and two assists, en route to posting a 5-4 overtime victory.

Just 45 seconds into a three-versus-three overtime session, the Warriors burst into the Saskatoon zone on a rush. Warriors star centre Brayden Yager brought the puck in over the blue-line and made a drop pass to Calvert.

Atley Calvert had two goals and two assists for the Warriors.

Calvert had the puck at the point and fed a smart pass to offensive-defenceman Maximus Wanner, who was deep down the left wing alone in the Saskatoon zone. Wanner skated in on the Saskatoon goal, waited for Blades netminder Ethan Chadwick to start going down in the butterfly, and roofed home the winner over Chadwick’s shoulder on the short side of the net to stun most of the 2,929 spectators in attendance.

While the Warriors were outshot 43-17 in the contest, they inexplicably found a way to run their winning streak to four straight games improving to 28-14-0-2. With the extra time setback, the Blades record moved to 27-9-3-1 to sit equal with the Warriors 58 standings points.

The Warriors currently sit third overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference due to having more wins than the Blades, but Saskatoon has four games in hand on Moose Jaw.

Connor Ungar makes one of his 39 saves for the Warriors.

Wednesday’s encounter proved to be head scratcher for Blades supporters. After the game’s opening 20 minutes, the Blades looked like they would bounce back from a 3-1 setback they sustained one night earlier against the Warriors at the Moose Jaw Events Centre in Moose Jaw.

The Blades came flying out of the gate. They opened the game’s scoring at the 4:31 mark of the first period, when Belarusian import right-winger Egor Sidorov popped home a rebound at the right side of the Moose Jaw goal from a shot taken by Blades standout defenceman Tanner Molendyk.

The tally marked the sixth goal in four games for Sidorov.

The Blades celebrate a first period goal from Egor Sidorov (#19).

The Blades held a 7-0 edge in shots on goal 10 minutes into the first and exited the frame with a 12-4 advantage in that department.

In the second frame, both sides decided to dial things back to the run-and-gun era of the 1980s, which seemed to play to the Warriors advantage.

Calvert scored on his team’s sixth shot of the contest deflecting a point blast from star centre Ryder Korczak to even the score at 1-1 at the 6:52 mark of the second. Just 10 seconds later, Blades star left-winger Conner Roulette put the Blades back ahead 2-1 gathering a loose puck and popping it into an empty net after Ungar and Warriors defenceman Lucas Brenton mishandled a shoot in.

Conner Roulette netted a pair of goals for the Blades.

The visitors quickly responded with a pair of goals to go ahead 3-2 with 10:03 remaining in the second period with tallies coming off the sticks of Ryder Korczak and Jagger Firkus on the Warriors seventh and eighth respective shots of the contest. Calvert picked up his first helper of the contest on Korczak’s tally.

The Blades proceeded to pull starting netminder Austin Elliott after Moose Jaw’s third goal. Elliott stopped 5-of-8 shots fired his way. Chadwick turned away 7-of-9 shots in relief in being credited with the extra time setback.

Just 3:24 after Chadwick entered the contest, he was beaten by a shot that accounted for Calvert’s second tally of the contest, with this one coming on a Moose Jaw power play to increase the Warriors advantage to 4-2. Calvert corralled the puck after it changed direction on a crazy bounce right to him and the break allowed him to score into an empty cage.

The Blades work frantically to defend their net.

With 1:52 remaining in the second, the Blades got a big traction goal with Roulette’s second of the contest to cut the Warriors lead to 4-3.

In the third, the Blades threw everything at the Moose Jaw net including the kitchen sink holding a 16-2 edge in shots on goal for the frame. The hosts were only able to beat Ungar once to force a 4-4 tie and ultimately overtime.

With 9:16 remaining in the third, Blades overage captain and offensive-defenceman Aidan De La Gorgendiere wired a point shot on goal that Ungar stopped but also produced a juicy rebound jetting out to the left side of the Moose Jaw net. Blades star centre Trevor Wong collected the rebound and popped home the equalizer into an empty cage.

The Warriors work frantically to keep the puck out of their goal.

That set the stage for the Warriors to pull out victory in overtime. Calvert hit a milestone as the four-point night allowed him to surpass 100 career points in regular season play. In 146 regular season games all with the Warriors, Calvert has 43 goals and 59 assists for 102 points.

When the dust settled, the Blades had to be wondering how they didn’t come out with a win on Wednesday. They are now left to turn the page before returning to action on Friday when they host their archrivals the 15-24-3 Prince Albert Raiders (7 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

In that contest, the Blades will be doing a promotion for the second straight year where they will play as the Saskatoon Bananas and will sell Saskatoon Bananas merchandise as part of the promotion. Fans enjoyed the comedy of the promotion when the Blades held it last season on April 1, 2022 and posted a 4-1 victory over the Warriors.

The Warriors celebrate their OT win on Wednesday.

The Warriors get back at it when they travel to Winnipeg to take on the WHL leading 31-5-1 Ice twice. The Warriors and Ice will go at it on 7 p.m. local time on Saturday and 4 p.m. local time on Sunday at the Wayne Fleming Arena.

Moose Jaw took both of their earlier meetings with Winnipeg this season on home ice. In the upcoming encounters with Winnipeg, the Warriors would prefer not to go the Iginla/Kiprusoff era of the NHL’s Flames to pull out victory, but they know they are capable of going that route if they have to.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Raiders bend, finally break against Warriors

Third period surge powers Moose Jaw to 4-1 victory

Brayden Yager had a goal and assist for the Warriors on Friday.

PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – The Prince Albert Raiders weren’t able to hold off the Moose Jaw Warriors constant pressure forever.

After netting the first goal of Friday’s WHL regular season clash at the Art Hauser Centre, the host Raiders saw the visiting Warriors take over the encounter. The Raiders 1-0 lead after the first period became a 1-1 tie after 40 minutes.

The Warriors surged for three goals in the third to cruise to a 4-1 victory before 2,202 spectators.

Following game, Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid didn’t mince words with his assessment.

“It wasn’t a close game, not even close,” said Habscheid. “We got schooled.

Ozzy Wiesblatt scored to give the Raiders an early lead.

“I didn’t like our forward group one bit. We got four D (defencemen) who are as good as anybody in the league, and we couldn’t get out of our end and that wasn’t on them. Our forward group, we tried to play dangle and play slow and on their own page and no forecheck.

“We were one and done. It was not good.”

Friday’s contest was quite different compared to when these same two clubs met Wednesday in Moose Jaw. In that game, the Raiders scored three times in the second period to take a 3-0 lead and held off a late third period Warriors rally to pull out a 3-2 win.

Warriors standout 16-year-old centre Brayden Yager believed his team’s overall effort was better and way more consistent in Friday’s win compared to Wednesday’s loss.

Dallyn Peekeekoot (#26) throws a hit for the Raiders.

“I thought tonight we played a full 60 minutes,” said Yager, who had a goal and assist in Friday’s win. “I thought last game we didn’t really have a good start.

“Tonight we played a full 60 minutes, and we got the job done.”

The Raiders appeared to start on their heels after they found themselves killing a couple of penalties to start the first period. In an unexpected development, the second kill provided a big offensive chance for the host side.

On the second kill, Raiders star defenceman Nolan Allan cleared the puck out of his own zone, and a race ensued for the puck in the Moose Jaw zone between Raiders star right-winger Ozzy Wiesblatt and Warriors captain Daemon Hunt.

Jagger Firkus scored a goal that got called back on video review.

Wiesblatt beat Hunt for the puck and put home a short-handed goal on a wraparound to give the hosts a 1-0 lead.

 The Warriors appeared to get the equalizer at the 8:28 mark of the opening frame on a left slot shot from right-winger Jagger Firkus. The goal was disallowed after a video review as the officials ruled the net was dislodged on the play.

Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary put up a protest, because the Prince Albert net was dislodge when Raiders netminder Carter Serhyenko pushed off one post to slide across the crease attempting to make a save.

While the Raiders had a 1-0 lead exiting the first period, the Warriors had an 11-6 in shots on goal. The visitors kept up the intensity through the rest of the game.

Ryder Korczak had a goal and an assist for the Warriors.

The Warriors pulled even at the 7:37 mark of the second, when import left-winger Martin Rysavy netted his first career WHL goal and point.

Warriors centre Ryder Korczak had the puck at the left side of the Prince Albert net, and fed a pass across the face of the goal to Rysavy. Rysavy buried a shot to force a 1-1 tie.

The Raiders had a chance to go ahead a short time later, but overage left-winger Michael Horon missed the net on a breakaway opportunity.

Moose Jaw outshot Prince Albert 10-4 in the second and could have had a bigger edge going to the third.

The visitors had two big chances to go ahead late in the frame working on the power play, but Serhyenko made big respective glove saves on Yager and defenceman Denton Mateychuk.

“We played the right way in Moose Jaw (on Wednesday night),” said Habscheid. “Our forwards were not good tonight to a man.

The Warriors celebrate a goal from Martin Rysavy (#19).

“They were not good. They didn’t create anything, and tried to do everything on their own. They couldn’t make a pass and couldn’t catch a pass, and our D (defencemen) were under siege the whole night.”

The Warriors finally got out in front at the 7:42 mark of the third, when Yager knocked home a puck from point blank range in front of the Raiders net. The Saskatoon product said he drove to the net to be in the right place, when overage defenceman Majid Kaddoura shot the puck to the net.

“I was kind of just going to the net, and I poke it in,” said Yager. “It ended up going in.

“I wasn’t sure if I scored it, but I ended up poking it in.”

Nolan Allan had an assist for the Raiders.

That opened the flood gates. Just six seconds before the midway point of the frame, Korczak scored to put the Warriors up 3-1, and just 34 seconds after that tally, Mateychuk netted his second of the season to round out the 4-1 victory.

Carl Tetachuk made 13 stops to pick up the win in goal for the Warriors (3-2). Serhyenko turned away 29 shots to take the setback in net for the Raiders (1-5).

After playing all 24 games with the Warriors last season in an abbreviated campaign in a bubble environment in Regina, Yager believes he got a jump going into his 16-year-old sophomore season.

Denton Mateychuk had the Warriors final goal on Friday.

“It was nice last year to play the 24 games that we got in,” said Yager. “It was real nice.

“I feel a lot more comfortable this year. We’re hoping to do big things these next couple of years.”

While Friday’s effort was disappointing for the Raiders, Wiesblatt believes he and his teammates can play way better than they did.

“We just have to be better in all areas,” said Wiesblatt. “It just comes down to our compete level.

“We weren’t competing at all today. It starts with guys like me. I have to be a lot better.

The Warriors celebrate their win on Friday.

“It is still early in the year. Guys are kind of getting their first touches with different linemates. We’re going to get better, and I believe in these guys.”

The Raiders return to action Saturday when they host the Medicine Hat Tigers at 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre. The Warriors are back in action Saturday, when they return home to host the Saskatoon Blades at 7 p.m. at Mosaic Place.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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