Tanner Eberle breaks in on Saskatoon goalie Nik Amundrud during the Warriors' 7-1 win over the Blades on Saturday. (Photo: Cory Kerr Photography)

The Moose Jaw Warriors had a been missing something during their first three games of the season. That something returned on Saturday night as Tanner Eberle scored twice to help lead the tribe to a 7-1 win over the Saskatoon Blades at Mosaic Place.

That put Moose Jaw in the win column for the first time this season and gave the team a much needed confidence boost after a 7-1 loss to Regina on Friday.

“That's Tanner Eberle when he's playing at his best and we saw that here tonight,” said Assistant Coach Mark O'Leary. “Just the energy level alone, whether its on the ice when he's out there or even in the dressing, the guys love having him around, but at the same time when the pucks dropped, he can turn it on in a hurry.”

From start to finish on Saturday, Eberle was flying around the ice and gave the Warriors the emotion boost that they had been missing through the first three games.

He scored the Warriors go-ahead goal late in the first period and made it 4-1 midway through the second with his second of the game.

“It felt as good as my first game ever here,” said Eberle after Saturday's game. “I'm really happy to be back and I felt like the crowd was energized and it was just a great game overall.”

The Warriors fed off that energy and were able to finally find their scoring touch in the win. Eberle is hoping that can lead to big things going forward as the tribe looks to pick it up after a slow start.

“Right off the start it felt like we had a lot of energy, they did score the first goal and it's really nice to see the guys battled back after that one goal and we came back and got two right away, so that was huge for us,” said Eberle.

Entering his fourth season with the Warriors, Eberle will be leaned on more offensively this year as he continues to develop his game looking towards the pro level.

Returning from Montreal Canadiens main camp, Eberle seemed like he had an extra step in his game and it showed as he generated numerous scoring chances.

“Any time you're at an NHL camp, that's a huge step and it just felt like I had a lot more time out here and I just tried to play simple and just kept getting chances, so that was good,” said Eberle.

The Warriors are no doubt happy to have the agitating forward back in their lineup as they head into a busy week ahead. The tribe will play three games in three nights, starting Thursday against Red Deer at Mosaic Place.

Defence Bounces Back

Friday wasn't a good night for the Warriors' six defencemen in the lineup as they were exposed in the team's 7-1 loss to the Pats.

Regina's forwards were able to generate speed through the neutral zone and then use that to get behind the Warriors' defence for easy scoring chances, and most of the time goals. However, that was cleaned up on Saturday when the Warriors hosted Saskatoon.

“It was a good bounce back game for the D, and for the whole team,” said 18-year-old Dallas Valentine. “We were defensively sound and that led to better offence too.”

The team was able to clean up their approach angles in between games through video work and played a much more solid game defensively on Saturday, which led to less chances off the rush for the Blades.

“It was just a few mistakes here and there on Friday that cost, so it was just little things like angles and not getting beat, and we did that here (Saturday) and the results were what we wanted,” added Valentine.

The performance against the Blades was made more impressive by the fact that Warriors did it with five defencemen for the majority of the game. Austin Adam went down with an upper body injury in the first period and did not return.

“It was tough to lose (Adam) early on, but it was a great night for guys like Tyler Brown and (Ryan) Gardiner to play significant minutes,” said O'Leary. “They got the opportunity, stepped in well and they did a great job as a five-man unit.”

The key now will be to build off that performance over the next week.

“We can't get too high on ourselves, we've got to focus on the next game and our next opponent and keep moving forward,” said Valentine.

Halbgewachs Scores His First

Jayden Halbgewachs dangles around Saskatoon defenceman Jordon Thompson on Saturday.

Jayden Halbgewachs opened the scoring for the Warriors on Saturday night, which gave him his first Western Hockey League goal.

“It felt really good, it's nice to get that under my belt,” said Halbgewachs. “The first ones always the hardest one and from there I hope that they just keep coming.”

The 17-year-old Regina native beat Saskatoon goalie Nik Amundrud over the glove with a quick shot that tied the game up at 1-1 for the Warriors just three minutes after Saskatoon opened the scoring.

The goal came just moments after Amundrud robbed Halbgewachs from in tight.

“It went just up and over the goalie, so to bounce back (moments later) and actually put it in was nice,” said Halbgewachs.

The Warriors' rookie finished with a goal and two points in the 7-1 win.