Moose Jaw's Zach Hagerman just misses on a chance in front of the Littleton net.

 

Canada and the United States will square off at the World Junior Hockey Championships on Sunday, but there was a mini version of the battle happening at Mosaic Place on Saturday afternoon.

 

The Littleton, Colorado Hawks picked up a 7-6 win over the Moose Jaw Bantam AA Warriors in an exhibition game on Saturday.

 

The Hawks are on a five-game tour through Saskatchewan right now that started with a game against Weyburn on Thursday and then Yorkton on Friday.  They’ll head to Estevan and play Weyburn again before heading back south.

 

“A guy on our team, his dad is from Arcola and he scheduled all these games and we took a bus up here and it’s a good experience for the boys,” explained Eric Killam, an assistant coach with the Hawks.

 

The Hawks are using the experience to play against some different style of teams and helped themselves going forward in their season.  “These teams are better, they’re bigger, more physical, which is something that we’re not use to, but I think it’s something that will help us later in the season,” said Killam.

 

“We’ve played two games already and Yorkton was a big team and I think we learnt a lot about how to play against a more physical team.”

 

The Hawks handled themselves well against Moose Jaw in picking up the win, scoring four of their seven goals on the power play.

 

Littleton opened the scoring five minutes into the first period with Johnny White picking up the goal.  Moose Jaw would respond midway through the first as Ahmed Ally scored on the power play to make it 1-1.  The Hawks would get the lead heading into the break though when White picked up his second of the period with just 12 seconds to go.

 

The Hawks started the second how they ended the first as White finished off the early hat trick, scoring just 45 seconds into the middle frame on the power play.  Moose Jaw answered quickly with Jeremy Bisson scoring 1:17 later, but Littleton continued to pour it on throughout the period, scoring three more times to take a 6-2 lead into the break.

 

Moose Jaw came out firing in the third period though and mounted a strong come back.  The Hawks went up 7-2 on White’s fourth of the game just 32 seconds into the period, but Moose Jaw answered with three goals in the next three minutes to make it 7-5.  Levi Watkinson scored at the 19:00 mark; Chantz Petruic made it 7-4 just eight seconds later; and Kyle Arndt pulled the Warriors within two 3:45 into the third.

 

The Warriors continued to pressure the Hawks and with 3:46 to go in the game, Petruic made it a one goal game with his second of the afternoon.  The five-goal cushion was too much for Moose Jaw to overcome though as Littleton picked up the 7-6 win.

 

“We didn’t really come out well in the first, the second wasn’t much better, and then the third period, they actually started to play.  We played like we can in the third,” said Duane Arndt, Warriors assistant coach.

 

“They never gave up, which is nice to see, so it ended up 7-6, but at least we mounted a comeback and had some spirit there, it was good to see and hopefully we can carry it into our next regular season game.”

 

The Hawks were a good test for the Warriors as they look to find some solid footing in the second half of the season after a 4-10-1 start to the year.

 

“They play hard, they’re a good team, I was really impressed by their body contact.  They use their body contact to take guys off the puck and they do a really good job of it,” explained Arndt.  

 

He says he hopes his team can learn from that as they head back into league play, “It was good to play a team that’s even with us because we haven’t for a while, use it like a practice and play a team that’s even.”

 

The Warriors open up the second half on Thursday against the Swift Current Raiders.  That game goes at 7:30pm at the Bert Hunt.