The Moose Jaw Warriors are still looking for a complete game, however despite that, they’re wrapping up their seven-game homestand with a 6-1 record.

The Warriors gutted out a 4-3 overtime win against the Vancouver Giants on Saturday night at Mosaic Place to improve to 7-1-0-0 overall this season.

Coming out of Saturday’s win, the Warriors still feel that they haven’t brought their best game yet this season.

“It’s obviously nice to come away with the two points in the end, but we’ve would have liked to have played better,” said forward Jayden Halbgewachs, who scored his sixth of the season to win the game in overtime on Saturday.

“There’s work to do, but it’s nice that we’re finding a way in the end to win games.  Once we get that work in and get doing things properly, games are going to go a lot smoother, but for right now, we’re going grind out wins as much as we can and hopefully progress towards playing a better team game.”

After losing their first game of the season last Sunday to Swift Current, the Warriors have responded with back-to-back wins to close out their homestand.

They’re confident that they will be able to raise their game up when needed.

“We still have a lot more to offer and we still have a lot of work to do,” said Warriors captain Brett Howden, who recorded his 200th career point with three assists in Saturday’s win.

“The teams that we’ve been playing have been playing hard. We still have another level to our game.”

After playing just one road game in their first eight games, the Warriors will now embark on a seven-game, 12-day road trip through the U.S. Division with a pair of stops in the Central Division.

With some many returning players, building team chemistry isn’t crucial for the Warriors, but Howden said getting out on the road and just focusing on hockey will be a big benefit for the team.

“We have a really close group, we’ve been together for a couple of years now and this trip will really help us out,” he said.  “We’ll get closer as a team doing team building stuff, but it will make us closer on the ice as well and it will really help our performance.”

The Warriors set a franchise record with 20 road wins last season, so heading out on the bus for the next two weeks might be the best medicine for a team that’s still looking to put together a full 60 minutes.

“Sometimes when you’re at home a lot, you kind of get complacent — you’re playing in your own building, you’re comfortable and it’s a little bit easier — so this road trip is coming at a good time, it will get us out there and playing in some environments where we’re not comfortable and sometimes that brings out the best in a team,” said Warriors assistant coach Scott King.

“Any times that you get wins it’s a good thing, but we’d like to be more consistent from start to finish, and we’re still trying to find our identity as a team, but this road trip is coming at the right time.”

The Warriors open the road trip with four games in five nights, starting on Tuesday in Cranbrook, B.C. against the Kootenay Ice.

Watts Scores Twice in Return to MJ

Brayden Watts played his first game back in Moose Jaw on Saturday and scored a pair of goals for the Giants in their overtime loss.

“It felt good to get a couple of goals on (Brody Willms) and play against the guys,” said Watts after Saturday’s game.

Watts was originally drafted by the Warriors in the third round of the 2014 WHL Bantam Draft.  He was traded to Vancouver at the WHL Trade Deadline last season in the deal that brought Thomas Foster to Moose Jaw.

After registering seven goals and nine points over 97 games with the Warriors, Watts has flourished in his new home in Vancouver, he finished last season with three goals and 14 points in 30 games with the Giants and has six goals and eight points in eight games so far this season.

“They’ve given me a lot of opportunity over the last year and a half and I’m just doing what I can with it,” said Watts.

The Giants have opened their East Division road trip with back-to-back one-goal losses.  They travel to Prince Albert on Tuesday.