Keenan Taphorn scored two second-period goals on Saturday to lead the Moose Jaw Warriors to a 5-1 win over the Kootenay Ice at Mosaic Place.

The win gives Moose Jaw a split of their two-game weekend homestand to put their record at 7-5-3-0 this season.

The Warriors established a quick pace in the first period, they had plenty of attack time and created a wealth of quality chances, but they weren’t able to punch the puck in and went into the first intermission scoreless with Kootenay.

Moose Jaw continued to pressure in the second period, they came at the Ice hard and were able to force turnovers to put 21 shots on net in the middle period.

The Warriors’ hard work was finally rewarded when they opened the scoring at 1:58 of the second when Tate Popple fought the puck away from Kootenay on the right wall and then set up Yegor Buyalski between the circles where his quick shot went top shelf for his second of the season.

Moose Jaw increased their lead at 7:14 when Captain Josh Brook walked off the right blue-line and tossed the puck towards the right goal line where Keenan Taphorn deflected in his fourth of the season into the Kootenay night from below the goal line.

Kootenay pulled to within one just over a minute later on a goal from Jaeger White.

The Warriors went back up by three at 12:31, as Tristin Langan scored his 12th on a successful backhand wraparound.

Moose Jaw then went up 4-1 at 16:40 when Taphorn deflected another point shot, while on the power play, for his second goal of the game.

The Warriors attack kept coming in the third period, as they outshot the Ice, 14-4, in the final period and picked up a power-play goal from Dalton Hamaliuk late in the frame.

Taphorn led the Warriors with two goals, Drae Gardiner and Brook had two assists each, and Brodan Salmond had to make just 17 saves. 

Moose Jaw found some life on special teams as they went 2-for-4 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill, while outshooting the Ice, 43-18.

The Warriors are now off until next Saturday when they’ll host the Central Division-leading Red Deer Rebels at Mosaic Place. Tickets are available online at www.mjwarriors.ca.

Warriors head coach Tim Hunter, Brook, Justin Almeida and Jett Woo are off to the West Coast to open the week as they will represent Team WHL in the 2018 Canada Russia Series on Monday in Kamloops, B.C. and on Tuesday in Vancouver.