The Moose Jaw Warriors outshot the Swift Current Broncos, 39-25, and controlled the pace for the majority of the game on Wednesday, but couldn’t convert on key chances and suffered a 4-2 loss.

The loss drops the Warriors back into a tie with the Broncos for first place overall in the Western Hockey League, but Moose Jaw holds two games in hand.

The Warriors were focused in the first period as they attacked the Broncos zone with speed, their fore-check was relentless on the puck and controlled the offensive zone boards. They were able to push the puck to the front of the net where they had plenty of bodies, and they outshot Swift Current 16-6 in the period.

Despite being outshot, the Broncos picked up the game’s first goal at 9:00, in the final seconds of a power play, Aleksi Heponiemi came off the right wall and put a wrist shot over the blocker of a screened Brody Willms.

Inside the final two minutes of the period, the Warriors landed on the power play and picked up a game-tying goal. Brayden Burke pushed the puck from the right circle to the front of the net, Broncos goalie Stuart Skinner failed to cover the puck, which allowed Tanner Jeannot to poke in his 36th goal.

Early in the second period, the Warriors were able to create pressure inside the Broncos zone, but they weren’t able to put the puck over the goal line.

Just passed the midway point of the period at 12:26, Swift Current made a hard pass from low in their zone to the neutral zone to spring their forwards, the rush ended with a go-ahead goal for Max Patterson.

Seven minutes into the third period, the Broncos went up by two with a shorthanded goal from Beck Malenstyn, but the Warriors responded only 23 seconds later with a power play goal from Jayden Halbgewachs to pull back to within one.

Moose Jaw outshot the Broncos 10-6 in the final period, but a late penalty by the Warriors turned into a Broncos power play goal from Colby Sissons with just over four minutes left in regulation.

With their net empty in the final two minutes of the game, the Warriors were able to force the puck to net, but weren’t able to add to their offence and ended up falling 4-2.

Burke and Kale Clague both had two assists for the Warriors. They were 2-for-6 on the power play with a shorthanded goal against and they were 2-for-4 on the penalty kill.

The loss moves their record to 44-12-1-2 and they are tied with Swift Current for first in the East Division but they have two games in hand.

The Warriors are now off until the weekend. On Saturday, they’ll take on the Regina Pats in their Hall of Fame Game and then on Sunday, they’ll head up to Saskatoon for an afternoon game.

Friday is the Conexus Warriors and Legends Hall of Fame Banquet at the Heritage Inn, this year’s inductees are Jason Fitzsimmons, Rob Reimer, and builder Toby Tobias.