In their final meeting of the regular season the Moose Jaw Warriors and Regina Pats fought tooth and nail for 60 minutes and when the smoke cleared the Warriors walked away with a 3-2 win at Mosaic Place.

The long-time rivals set a physical and emotion pace throughout the first period, but as the game went on the Warriors started to get more attack time.

Getting to the seven-minute mark the Warriors fore-check broke up a Pats clearing attempt on the left boards where Tristin Langan took the puck off the wall and charged the net and he finished the rush with his 14th goal.

With under five minutes remaining in the period, the Warriors landed on the power play and Kale Clague made a hard pass from the Warriors’ zone to Justin Almeida just outside the Regina line, he controlled the pass and then burst down the right wall and cut towards the net, where he lifted a backhand over Max Paddock for his 34th goal to make it 2-0.

The tight battles continued in the second period, but midway through the frame, the Warriors had the Pats on their heels inside their zone. Captain Brett Howden skated around the Pats zone with the puck, starting from the right circle then made his way to the blue-line and then down to the left circle, where he lifted the puck cross ice to Jayden Halbgewachs inside the right circle and he scored his WHL-leading 58th goal.

Regina got on the board with just over three minutes left in the second period when Jesse Gabrielle snuck a shot over the goal line.

The hard fought battles continued in the third period as the Warriors looked for breathing room while the Pats tried desperately to get back in the game.

Regina inched closer seven and a half minutes into the period when Robbie Holmes flipped the puck over the goal line.

As the clock ticked down the Pats continued to press, but the Warriors held their ground and fought their way to the tight win.

Brody Willms was solid between the pipes making 28 saves, while the Warriors were 1-for-2 on the power play and 2-for-2 on the penalty kill.

The win was the Warriors’ 45th of the season, which ties the single season franchise record set back in 2011-12. The Warriors also moved back into first place overall in the WHL thanks to Red Deer’s 5-3 win over Swift Current.

It was also the 138th win on the Warriors’ bench for Tim Hunter, which moves him past Al Tuer and into sole possession of first place on the team’s all-time wins list.

It’s a quick turnaround for the Warriors as they won’t have a lot of time to rest because they’re up in Saskatoon to battle the Blades on Sunday afternoon.  Catch all the action on Country 100 starting with the Westrum Lumber Timber Mart Pre-Game Show at 1:40 p.m.

Coming up next week the Warriors have four games in five days starting on Tuesday in Lethbridge with the first game of a two-game road trip to the Central Division.  On Wednesday, the Warriors head to Cranbrook to take on the Kootenay Ice and next Friday, they’re back in Brandon before they return home next Saturday to take on Saskatoon.