The Moose Jaw Warriors returned to the win column on Monday and it gave the team some much needed momentum heading into a showdown with the Swift Current Broncos on Wednesday night.

Monday’s win in Brandon snapped a two-game skid for the Warriors, who needed to get back to their game after two tough losses to Regina. They did exactly that in their meeting with the Wheat Kings with a 6-3 victory.

“The response Monday was good and to get back into the victory column was good,” said forward Justin Almeida, who sits third on the team in scoring with 33 goals and 77 points in 58 games.

Wednesday’s game will mark the first meeting between the Warriors and Broncos since the WHL Trade Deadline, which saw both teams add significant pieces to their lineup.

The Broncos enter Wednesday’s game with points in seven straight games and they have moved just two points behind Moose Jaw for top spot in the Western Hockey League, but the Warriors do have two games in hand.

With just two meetings remaining between the teams in the regular season, Wednesday will be a proving ground for both squads.

Almeida said they need to play their game against a hard-nosed Broncos team, “We can’t back down from their hitting and stuff like that, but stuff after the whistles, we need to let the refs take care of it and stay away from the way they like to play because they like that stuff, so if we match their physical play and stick to our game, we’ll be good to go.”

The Warriors will be heading into hostile territory for the game with a sold-out Credit Union Iplex expected for the meeting between the league’s top-two teams.

Despite the crowd being against them, Almeida said that they need to feed off it as much as the Broncos.

“Big rivalry games in your division are always fun to play in,” he said. “It feels like playoffs when the building is sold-out and the fans are getting into it and emotions are high, that’s what we live for and these are the most fun games of the year.

“We want to silent the crowd, the home team gets pretty excited when the crowd is into it, so as long as we can weather the storm and push the pace for ourselves, things will work out for us.”

The Warriors and Broncos hit the ice at the Iplex at 7 p.m. Wednesday night. You can catch all the action on Country 100, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 6:40 p.m.