Warriors battle past Thunderbirds | WHL | VIDEO

Moilanen scores in 3-1 loss to Moose Jaw

October 22, 2017 9:30 am
The Thunderbirds’ Matthew Wedman looks for the puck after colliding with a Warrior skater during WHL action Saturday night. COURTESY PHOTO, Brian Liesse, T-Birds

The Moose Jaw Warriors defeated the Seattle Thunderbirds 3-1 in a Western Hockey League game Saturday night at the accesso ShoWare Center.

Justin Almeida banged a rebound past Seattle goalie Liam Hughes just after Zack Andrusiak rang a shot off the crossbar for the game-winning goal with 1:15 left in the third period..

Noah Gregor added an empty-net goal with 29 seconds left for the third Moose Jaw goal.

Seattle outshot Moose Jaw 15-10 in a scoreless first period.

Moose Jaw went in front 1-0 at 5:14 of the second period on a goal from Tanner Jeannot. Branden Klatt and Matthew Benson had the assists.

The T-Birds tied the game 1-1 at 8:19 of the second period. Elijah Brown intercepted a pass in the high slot. Brown took a wrist shot that rebound off Moose Jaw goalie Brody Willms into the slot. Dillon Hamaliuk whacked at the puck at the it came to Sami Moilanen to the right of Willms. Moilanen banged the puck into the net for his ninth goal of the year.

The T-Birds outshot the Warriors 10-9 in the second period and 25-19 in the game.

The T-Birds pulled Hughes for an extra attacker after the second Warriors goal but were not able to find the equalizer.

Hughes had 31 saves on 33 shots and Willms had 33 saves on 34 shots.

The T-Birds are in Everett on Sunday to take on the Silvertips at Xfinity Arena at 4:05 p.m.

Single-game tickets for the regular season are on sale online on the T-Birds website and at the ShoWare Center box office. Season tickets may be purchased by calling the T-Birds office at 253-239-7825.

SCORING SUMMARY

First period – No scoring. Penalties – Neuls, Sea (slashing), 3:00. Volcan, Sea (tripping), 7:38. Jeannot, MJ (boarding), 14:01.

Second period – 1, Moose Jaw, Jeannot 4 (Klatt, Benson), 5:14. 2, Seattle, Moilanen 9 (Brown, Hamaliuk), 8:19. Penalties – Burke, MJ (holding), 1:59.

Third period – 3, Moose Jaw, Almeida 7 (Zaitsev, Burke), 18:45. 4, Moose Jaw, Gregor 8 (Jeannot, Zaitsev), 19:31 (en). Penalties – Hyman, Sea (roughing), 12:21. Strand, Sea (roughing), 12:21. Gregor, MJ (roughing), 12:21. DeRoose, MJ (roughing), 20:00. Sosunov, MJ (roughing), 20:00. Neuls, Sea (roughing), 20:00. Neuls, Sea (roughing), 20:00. Bench, Sea (served by Strand), 20:00.

Shots on goal – Seattle 15-10-9 34, Moose Jaw 10-9-15 34. Goalies – Seattle, Hughes 33 shots-31 saves (1-2-0-0); Moose Jaw, Willms 34-33 (7-3-0-0). Power plays – Seattle 0-2; Moose Jaw 0-4. A – 5,070. Referees – Steve Papp, Nick Swaine. Linesmen – Ron Dietterle, Michael McGowan.