The saying goes, “It's not how you start, it's how you finish.” That was definitely true for the Moose Jaw Warriors on their four-game Central Division road trip.

The Warriors got off to a rocky start with a 3-1 loss in Edmonton and then dropping a 6-1 game to the Rebels in Red Deer. After not getting the results that they were looking for to start, Moose Jaw put together two very strong efforts to finish off the road trip, taking three out of four points in Calgary and Lethbridge.

“We're a glass half-full team and we'll take the way that finish the road trip over the way that we started,” said Mark O'Leary, Warriors' assistant coach. “The way that we came away with the point in Lethbridge, we should be proud of the guys for dealing with some adversity and coming out of it not losing our composure and not letting two points slip away.”

Moose Jaw finished off a sweep of their season series with Calgary by handing the Hitmen a 5-1 loss on Friday night and then they followed that up with a hard fought 4-3 overtime loss against the league-leading Hurricanes.

In Saturday's game, WHL leading scorer Brayden Burke scored a go-ahead goal with just under eight minutes left in regulation. There was some controversy surrounding the goal as the Hurricanes appeared to be offside, but the Warriors didn't let it get to them and responded with the game-tying goal from Jayden Halbgewachs just 2:04 later.

The Warriors are coming away happy with how they dealt with that situation and what that means for the team moving forward.

“As a bench we were obviously pretty frustrated with the way that it happened, but that's hockey sometimes and I thought we flipped the switch and turned the page in hurry and we answered back right away,” said O'Leary. “We showed that we can deal with things like that and that's going to be important down the stretch and come playoff time.”

Zach Sawchenko led Moose Jaw to the win on Friday, making 38 saves against Calgary, but instead of sticking with his hot hand, head coach Tim Hunter decided to go with Brody Willms on Saturday in Lethbridge.

Willms rewarded his head coach by turning away 38 shots and earning second star honours in the losing cause.

O'Leary said this weekend showed why they have confidence in both netminders.

“To go back-to-back games, being in Calgary and have the performance that Sawzy had and then to have the confidence to come with Willms in this building, he did everything he could to give us a chance to win and was certainly a big part of that point that we came away with,” he said.

Despite their early struggles, the Warriors come out of the road trip having gained ground on the Prince Albert Raiders for second place in the East Division. Moose Jaw sits just two points back with Prince Albert holding a game-in-hand.

The Warriors are off during the week, but have a busy weekend ahead. They head to Medicine Hat on Friday, then host Prince George on Saturday before welcoming in the Tigers on Sunday.