Ben Riche’s second goal of the night proved to be the difference on Friday night as the Moose Jaw Warriors squeaked past the Regina Pats 5-4 in the season opener for both teams.
Tye Spencer had a pair of goals for Regina in the loss, Cole Dubinsky and Borya Valis also scored for the Pats.
After a scoreless first period, the floodgates opened up the in the second period as the two teams each scored their opening goals of the season in the opening 48 seconds of the period.
The Pats got their first lead of the season at 7:30 of the second period, but that would only 37 seconds before Moose Jaw would tie the game up 2-2.
In the final period, Regina had taken the lead moments after killing off a two minute five on three situation. Tanner Howe and Valis were the two Pats serving the penalties, once their infractions expired, both players found themselves in an odd man situation inside of Moose Jaw’s zone that Valis capitalized by scoring his first goal of the year.
Once again it was a temporary lead for Regina before Moose Jaw tied the game up 58 seconds, before Riche would finish it off for Moose Jaw with 7:10 remaining in the contest.
Regina outshot the Warriors 39-20. Koen MacInnes made his first start with the Pats and ended up making 15 saves in the loss.
Powerplays were a deciding factor in the game as Moose Jaw was 1/5 on the extra man advantage while Regina was 0/4.
Connor Bedard was held off the scoresheet in his first game of the season, he had some opportunities including a breakaway in the second period that turned aside by the Warriors Connor Ungar.
Assistant Coach Ken Schneider said it was very disheartening for the Pats to give up a goal to Moose Jaw right after they scored on multiple occasions.
“That takes a lot of energy from you when you worked hard to get that one goal lead.”
Schneider added the Pats have to do a better job of riding the waves of momentum throughout the game.
“What we have to get better at is learning how to get not too high and not too low. We saw the roller coaster there, we’re really going to have to bear down on that.”
Spencer felt there were some positives and negatives in the Pats effort in the season opener.
“I thought we played well, there were definitely times where we could definitely been more defensive, carry that momentum after goals.”
The Pats will not have to wait to long before they get another shot at the Warriors as the two teams meet in Moose Jaw on Saturday night.
They game can be heard on 620 CKRM with the pregame show beginning at 6:35, opening faceoff at 7:00.
