With opening weekend jitters now in the past, the tribe is looking to the future.
The Moose Jaw Warriors and Brandon Wheat Kings split their home and home series, but home ice wasn't an advantage.
The Wheat Kings spoiled the tribe's home opener at Mosaic Place Thursday, but the Warriors responded with a 4-3 win the following night in Brandon.
Forward Brett Lyon led the charge in the win, as he bit the Wheat Kings for three goals, four points, and had a "Gordie Howe Hat Trick" (a goal, an assist, and a fight in one game).
He's one of four overage players on the teams roster, and he says that if he wants to stick around, he needs to make an impact every chance he gets. "I have to try and take advantage of every opportunity I get out there, and play like it's my last shift. You have to go out there and put everything into it every time."
Assistant coach Trevor Weisgerber says Lyon is doing everything he can to snag one of the overage spots on the roster. "Offensively he obviously did a great job. We need Brett to be one of those guys that works hard every night. He knows his role very well, and if he's chipping in it's always a good thing."
The overage forward was acquired mid way thru last season from Vancouver, and says they made good adjustments coming off of their Thursday loss. "We played with a little more confidence, there's still some kinks that we need to work out. It was definitely more of a good team game.
"It's nice, I've always kind of always wanted both, that was my first one," said Lyon about picking up a hat trick and "Gordie Howe Hat Trick" in the same game.
Not only was Lyon impressive, but overage goalie Deven Dubyk was solid between the pipes. Dubyk saw 24 shots in the third period, and made 48 saves in the Friday win.
"He stood his ground, he played very well, he made some big saves late," said Weisgerber about Dubyk. "Some I'm not sure how he even stopped, I don't know if he seen them. He makes himself big, he's a big guy, and he did a great job."
The guys are back at Mosaic Place this afternoon, and won't see action until the weekend when they open a five game home stand with a tilt against Prince Albert on Friday.
Talking with assistant coach Trevor Weisgerber, he says their play in the defensive zone is an area they'll concentrate on over the next couple of days. "We're going to have to go over some things, shore up some D zone coverage for sure. It was just little plays on the wall, we lost some battles on the wall, down low, and things like that. We still have a pretty young lineup in there, and we battled hard and it was good."
The Warriors found out on the weekend that they would be without forward Cody Beach for the next couple of weeks. Beach was given a seven game suspension for a major and game misconduct for checking to the head in Thursday's game.
Beach sat out last Friday's game, and won't return to the lineup until October 14th against Swift Current.
In other Warrior news...
Overage defenceman Collin Bowman is on the move. Bowman, who's at New York Rangers main camp, was assigned to the teams AHL affiliate on the weekend. He'll be looking to get into exhibition games schedule for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Forward Quinton Howden (Florida) and blueliner Dylan McIlrath (NY Rangers) are still attending NHL main camps.
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