Jack Rodewald, right, squares off with his former team last season against the Regina Pats.

The Moose Jaw Warriors couldn't buy a win against the biggest rival last season as the Regina Pats won all eight meetings between the two teams.

The tribe will be looking to change that in their third game of the season on Friday night at Mosaic Place. Both the Warriors and Pats enter the game looking for their first win of the season after dropping both games on the opening weekend – Moose Jaw falling to Swift Current and Regina to Brandon.

“We've been positive all week,” said assistant captain Jack Rodewald. “This early in the season, you have to keep a short mind and really just focus up on these next games, Regina and Saskatoon another couple of divisional games, so we just have to be better than last weekend.”

Coming off last weekend's losses, the Warriors were disappointed in failing to come away with points in either game, but not with how they played. The team felt that they stuck to their game plan and will be looking to build off that going into this weekend.

“We just need to use our speed and our skill,” said Rodewald. “Up front, we have a lot of depth this year as compared to last year and it's just about every line doing what they're good at every night and if we do that, we'll have a good chance of winning.”

Emotions always get flowing when the Pats and Warriors meet up. The Warriors have some extra motivation after the struggles against Regina last season and they'll be aiming to start the season series off on strong footing this year.

“They're a pretty big rival of ours and we've got to go hard every game against them,” said defenceman Dallas Valentine, who returned from New York Rangers' training camp this week. “We can't afford to lose that many games to teams in our own division, so we're going to come out hard this year and show them what we've got.”

While the Warriors are going into the game looking to avenge last season's struggles, the two teams have underwent plenty of changes since last season. The Pats will be without veteran forwards Dyson Stevenson, Chandler Stephenson and Morgan Klimchuk, but they will be getting back captain Kyle Burroughs and have added in 16-year-old Sam Steel.

Moose Jaw is still missing Tanner Eberle who remains away at Montreal Canadiens training camp. They've seen captain Brayden Point and Valentine return this week and will also have 16-year-old forward Brett Howden added to the mix.

“It's definitely going to be in the back of our mind what they did to use last year, but we can't do it as a revenge match, we just have to play our game,” said Rodewald. “We know them really well and we just brought in a new player (Linden Penner), he's a big body and he's really going to help us out.”

The Warriors could be without forwards Jaimen Yakubowski and Noah Gregor for Friday night's tilt. Gregor hasn't practiced all week, while Yakubowski has been sporting a non-contact jersey when skating with the team. Both are expected to be game-day decisions.

The rivalry heats back up on Friday night at 7:00pm. Tune into Country 100 for all the action with Voice of the Warriors James Gallo, Derek Kletzel and Marc Smith. They hit the air at 6:40pm for the Pre-Game Show.

Valentine Returns From Big Apple

When Dallas Valentine headed away to the Traverse City Prospects Tournament with the New York Rangers, not many people were expecting the big defenceman to stick with the team past the rookie tournament, not even him.

“I wasn't really expecting to stay that long,” said Valentine after practice on Thursday, his first back with the Warriors. “They only sent one guy home after Traverse City, so the rest of us stayed there, practiced and got to experience a little bit of the pro life, so it was good.”

Valentine went to Traverse City as a free agent tryout. He impressed enough to be invited to main camp with the defending Eastern Conference champions where he got to hit the ice with some top NHLers, as well as former Warriors defenceman Dylan McIlrath.

Valentine felt he performed well at the camp and left a good impression with the team.

“I just felt like I got better everyday and they saw my progress,” he said. “I was just controlling the puck, making hard passes, listening and trying to get better. They liked me, so I stuck around for a little while.”

After getting exposed to professional hockey, Valentine said he knows where he needs to take his game going forward to get to that level.

“It gives me a perspective of where I need to be in terms of making it to the next level and what I need to do this year to get better and go back next year and have another shot at it,” said the 18-year-old defenceman.

Point Named Captain... Brayden Point joined a special group on Thursday when he was named the 30th captain in Moose Jaw Warriors' history. He's one of the few players to wear the 'C' for the tribe at the age of 18, joining Mark Hussey. Click here for more on the Warriors' leadership group.