The Moose Jaw Warriors have put together a strong first quarter of the season and goalie Brodan Salmond has been a big part of that success.

Salmond has posted a 5-2-2-0 record through nine starts this season for Moose Jaw. He sits tenth in the Western Hockey League with a 2.76 goals against average.

"We’re off to a good start, [we have a 7-5-3-0] record and it could be even better, we’ve dropped a couple of tight overtime games, so it’s good," he said. "The boys have fun, we have a really good group of guys in the room there and we come to the rink every day, work hard and have fun."

The 20-year-old netminder joined the Warriors as a camp invite after the announcement that fellow overage goalie Brody Willms would be forced to miss the season with a hip injury.

Salmond was coming off an injury-plagued season in his own right during 2017-18 with the Kelowna Rockets as he was limited to just 26 games with a 3.67 G.A.A. and a 0.880 save percentage.

He’s looked solid in his nine starts this season, giving Moose Jaw a strong 1-2 punch with 18-year-old Adam Evanoff, who has made six starts for the Warriors.

"Coming in, I wasn’t really sure what to expect, but the guys welcomed me in right away and the coaching staff did as well, made me feel comfortable and it’s nice to get off to a good start after the year I had last year, it wasn’t quite what I wanted, so it’s been good so far," said Salmond.

Settling in quickly with the Warriors was key to the strong start for Salmond.

"It’s huge, you want to be familiar with the guys in the room, especially your D core, you want to have good communication back there, so coming in, it was good to meet the guys, be friends with them first before getting on the ice, but it’s been good," he said.

The Warriors are coming off a 5-1 win over the Kootenay Ice last Saturday and when they return to the ice this Saturday to host the Red Deer Rebels, it will have been a full week between games.

Salmond said they’ve been trying to keep things fresh during the week, "We’ve been out here early this week having fun, keeping it loose around the room," he said. 

"It’s been a long week of practice, you're not usually used to that, so you want to have a little fun for sure, fun earlier in the week and dial it in as the week goes on."

The Warriors and Central Division-leading Rebels face-off on Saturday night at Mosaic Place.