After filling the net to open the road trip on Tuesday night, the Moose Jaw Warriors couldn’t push the puck over the line on Wednesday night.

The Warriors finished off a two-game road trip to Manitoba with a 4-0 loss to the Winnipeg ICE at Wayne Fleming Arena.

“We weren’t very good overall,” Warriors captain Daemon Hunt said. “Our puck management wasn’t very good, our turnovers at the blue line wasn’t very good and we didn’t shoot enough pucks.”

Wednesday was a complete reversal of the Warriors’ game the night before in Brandon when they beat the Wheat Kings, 7-1.

“I liked our game in Brandon and I was expecting a better effort tonight from the guys, including myself, we just didn’t click tonight,” Hunt said.

The game was fast-paced throughout and the ICE were able to capitalize on some turnovers by the Warriors to score in transition.

“They’re a good hockey team and they’re in first place for a reason,” Warriors assistant coach Gord Burnett said. “They did a good job of winning 50/50 pucks and when they get possession, they’re coming at you.”

Winnipeg opened the scoring midway through the first period when Connor McClennon converted on a turnover to give the ICE a 1-0 lead after a back-and-forth opening frame.

Matthew Savoie scored on a breakaway early in the second period and the ICE led 2-0 after 40 minutes.

Winnipeg gave themselves some more cushion early in the third period when Mike Milne and Conor Geekie scored just under three minutes apart in the opening 5:12 of the frame.

Carl Tetachuk made some big saves throughout the night, including two back-to-back stops just after the goals to keep the Warriors in the game.

“We kind of left Teddy out to dry in goal there too, which obviously hurts because he’s a big part of our team,” Hunt said.

“Teddy was there when we needed him,” added Burnett.

Tetachuk finished with 31 saves in the loss, while Daniel Hauser made 24 stops for the shutout in Winnipeg’s goal.

The loss drops the Warriors’ record to 33-21-3-2 this season, which is still good enough for fourth place in the Eastern Conference, one point ahead of the Saskatoon Blades.

The Warriors will now look to bounce back for a big game on Saturday night when they host the Regina Pats for Snowbirds Night at Mosaic Place.

“We’ll have some fire in our eyes against Regina, obviously Snowbirds Night, it’s against Regina, it’s one of the biggest nights of the year for us and for the city,” Hunt said.

“This one can definitely sit and sting for a bit, but we learn from it and we get better.”