In a preview of a potential first-round series, the Moose Jaw Warriors exercised some demons against the Saskatoon Blades on Saturday night.

The Warriors scored four times in the third period and rolled to a 7-0 win over the Blades at Mosaic Place.

“Just getting this win, we showed Saskatoon what we’re capable of and to be mindful of us in the playoffs,” Warriors forward Eric Alarie said after the win.

Moose Jaw had dropped its previous five meetings with Saskatoon. The Warriors only other win against the Blades came on opening night when they skated to a 7-1 win on home ice.

Warriors assistant coach Gord Burnett said it was a much-needed win for the team.

“A better version for sure, our best, I would say not, but definitely a better version than the first six games they saw us, so we’re happy with that,” he said.

Carl Tetachuk put together another stellar outing in goal for the Warriors, as he turned away all 31 shots he faced for his third shutout of the season.

Tetachuk stopped 23 shots over the first two periods, including some big saves during a five-minute penalty kill late in the second period.

“He made some really big saves, two on the PK and then a couple backdoor five-on-five,” Burnett said. “He gave the guys a lot of confidence in front of him, just by his demeanour and the way he was standing in there.”

Denton Mateychuk led the charge offensively for the Warriors with a goal and four points. The 17-year-old defenceman now has 10 points in his last two games.

Jagger Firkus chipped in with two goals and three points, and Alarie added a goal and three points in the win.

The Warriors are without Captain Daemon Hunt and fellow defenceman Max Wanner. Burnett said the whole team did a solid job of stepping up to help carry the load.

“Obviously our forward group’s real strong starts with everyone healthy upfront and I thought they did a really good job of holding onto pucks in the offensive zone, we had some extended shifts down there,” he said.

Ryder Korczak opened the scoring for the Warriors 3:47 into the game, but the score remained 1-0 after one following a back-and-forth rest of the period.

Moose Jaw struck early again in the second period when Lucas Brenton wired home his third of the season to make it 2-0 just 6:16 into the middle frame.

After the Warriors killed off the five-minute major penalty late in the second and to start the third, Brayden Yager fired in his 33rd of the year just 1:10 into the final period.

Alarie followed it up with his 20th of the season at 2:56 to put momentum fully on the Warriors’ side.

Moose Jaw sealed the win when Mateychuk scored his 10th of the season at 14:44. 2021 second-round pick Brady Ness picked up his first Western Hockey League point in his first game with an assist on the goal.

Firkus sealed the win with his team-leading 34th and 35th goals of the season over the final 2:12.

Moose Jaw went 1-for-3 on the power play and killed off six of the Blades’ power play opportunities.

The Warriors outshot Saskatoon 40-31 in the win.

Moose Jaw now sits three points ahead of Saskatoon for fourth place in the Eastern Conference. These two teams will meet again on Friday in Saskatoon.

The Warriors start the week with a trip into Winnipeg to face the Eastern Conference-leading ICE on Tuesday.