Four third period goals, including three in 35 seconds, allowed the Moose Jaw Warriors to pull a victory from the grasp of defeat on Thursday night.

The Warriors mounted a third period comeback to beat the Prince Albert Raiders 5-2 in their return to Mosaic Place after a seven-game road trip.

“We had opportunities all night long and their goalie was standing on his head a little bit, so we just wanted to keep playing our game and we knew that they were eventually going to go in for us.  It was just a good team effort,” said forward Tanner Jeannot.

The Raiders held a 2-1 lead heading into the third period, but the Warriors turned it on in the final frame.  A power play goal from Brayden Burke with 8:46 remaining tied the game up.

Moose Jaw found the go-ahead goal with 3:54 to go when Jayden Halbgewachs finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play with Noah Gregor and Brett Howden.

Jeannot would streak down the wing and score his tenth of the season just 16 seconds later and then Halbgewachs would do the same thing only 19 seconds after that to turn a deficit into a three-goal lead in a five-minute span.

“We had lots of chances, but we didn’t get anything in tight and we didn’t play very well on the power play, and I challenged them in between the second and third that if we do play hard, do get to the inside, we’re going to get more chances, better quality chances and we did,” said Head Coach Tim Hunter after the game.

The two teams opened the game with a blistering pace in the first period.

Brett Leason scored for the Raiders to open the scoring just 5:31 into the game.  Despite outshooting Prince Albert 20-10 in the period, it took the Warriors until the final minute of the first to find the equalizer when Luka Burzan banged in a power play goal with 17 seconds left in the period.

“I’m just trying to play my game and do the simple things, I’m getting a lot of chances and I just need to do keep doing that and eventually they start coming in,” said Burzan on scoring his second goal of the season.

The line of Burzan, Branden Klatt and Jaxon Kaluski was able to bring consistent pressure throughout the game for the Warriors and provided a lot of energy in the win.

“I thought our other line of (Tate) Popple, (Tyler) Smithies and Tristyn DeRoose, they all did a great job, they gave us good minutes and they’re trust worthy out there, they do the right things and they’re starting to figure it out,” said Hunter.

Warriors forward Branden Klatt crashes the net looking for a rebound against the Prince Albert Raiders on Thursday night at Mosaic Place. (Photo: Marc Smith)

The second was a struggle for the Warriors.  Devon Skoleski banged home a rebound in front midway through the middle period to give Prince Albert the lead and the Raiders sat back with the lead, stifling the Warriors for the rest of the period.

However, the lead didn’t hold and eventually the Warriors were able to strike.

“It was a good 55 minutes, but we’ve got to learn how to close those games out, it’s a 60-minute game,” said Raiders captain Curtis Miske after the loss.  “You get a team like this, who’s a top team in the CHL rankings, they’re going to put it behind you, so we’ve got to learn from that.”

Burke finished with a goal and three points in the win, while Brett Howden recorded three assists and defenceman Chase Hartje picked up a pair of helpers in his home debut.

Brody Willms made 24 saves for his tenth win of the season, while Curtis Meger put together a strong game with 37 saves in the loss.

The Warriors were 2-for-5 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.

These two teams will meet again on Saturday in Prince Albert.  The Pre-Game Show is on the air at 6:40 p.m. on Country 100 from the Art Hauser Centre.