Fall may have just arrived, but it feels like the spring in the rivalry between the Moose Jaw Warriors and Regina Pats.

The Trans-Canada rivals collide on Friday night at Mosaic Place for the first of eight meetings this season.

In the lead-up to the game, both teams have been deflecting the attention towards the strength of their opposition with both teams expected to be at, or near, the top of the pack in the East Division and Eastern Conference. The game will no doubt set the tone for what should be a heated rivalry throughout the regular season.

“Everybody knows that it’s going to be a big rivalry between us this year and they’re a stronger opponent than we faced last week, so we’ve got to be ready for it,” said goalie Brody Willms, who’s coming off a pair of strong performances during the opening weekend.

All week on social media, the Warriors have been playing up the fact that the Pats have been ranked in the top spot of the CHL Top-Ten for both weeks to start the season. Moose Jaw earned an honourable mention this week after sweeping their opening weekend games against the Prince Albert Raiders.

The expectations on both teams has added to the rivalry this season.

“They’re the Memorial Cup hosts and we obviously want to prove a point nice and early,” said Halbgewachs. “We want to prove ourselves in the conference and division, and they’re ranked number one (in the CHL Top-Ten) right now, so we want to show that we can play with the number one ranked team.”

The Pats enter Friday night’s match-up coming off a 5-3 loss to the Swift Current Broncos on Wednesday, which dropped their record to 1-2-0-0 on the year. They are currently missing a few key pieces to their lineup with forward Sam Steel and defenceman Josh Mahura still with the Anaheim Ducks, while Jake Leschyshyn and Nick Henry are out with injuries.

With the return of captain Brett Howden from the Tampa Bay Lightning’s training camp earlier this week, the Warriors will have their full lineup, minus defenceman Josh Brook, who had wrist surgery last week.

Moose Jaw put together a pair of commanding wins over the Raiders last weekend and Halbgewachs said they’re just looking to build off that success.

“It was a good starting point and we can only get better from there,” he said. “Coming away with the two wins was huge, but I don’t think those were our strongest games at all, we can still be more consistent.”

Willms played a big part in the Warriors’ sweeping the weekend as he made 21 saves in a shutout last Friday in Prince Albert and then turned away 40 shots in Saturday’s 7-3 win in the home opener.

He said he’s happy with the start that he put together in the opening weekend.

“I felt good, we got the result that we wanted in both games,” he said. “We have some things to tighten up after the second game going into this weekend, but just happy with the results.”

Willms has a 1-1-1-0 record in three career starts against the Regina Pats and will now get a chance to leave his mark on the rivalry in a big way this season in his first year as the full-time starter.

“Obviously we want to beat the Pats, but it’s the same with every team,” he said. “You can’t try to go in there with a different mindset or anything, you want to still focus on playing our game and worrying about what we can do out there.”

The Warriors and Pats hit the ice at 7 p.m. Friday night. The Pre-Game Show will be on the air on Country 100 at 6:40 p.m.

Moose Jaw will also host Red Deer coming up on Saturday.