Warriors assistant captain Jaimen Yakubowski is hoping to lead the tribe past Regina for the first time in 2014 on the final day of the year. (Photo: Cory Kerr/MJ Warriors)

Finding success against the Regina Pats hasn’t been something that’s come easy for the Moose Jaw Warriors over the past two seasons.  They’re actually winless against their Trans-Canada rivals since Mar. 12, 2013.

The tribe will try to change that on Wednesday night when the two teams meet on the final night of 2014.

The Warriors and Pats will go head-to-head at Mosaic Place in a New Years Eve battle that is just the second meeting of the season between the two teams.

20-year-old forward Jaimen Yakubowski says the team is looking for redemption for the Pats' 7-1 win over Moose Jaw way back in September.

“For the guys that were here at the start of the year, we definitely remember — well me personally I do — you don’t forgot games like that throughout the season,” said Yakubowski.  “I expect a good effort from us and they’re going to come out hard and it will be a good game for both of us.”

The Warriors are entering the game on a five-game losing skid that started before the Christmas break and continued last weekend with back-to-back losses to the Brandon Wheat Kings.

The team feels they played well in those two games, but just didn’t have the extra something needed to come away with a win.

“We competed with one of the best teams in the league and we had our chances to win both games,” said Yakubowski, who returned from a one-game suspension on Sunday.  “We gave ourselves a chance to win and I expect the same in these next few games coming up here.”

As with any losing streak, there’s the danger of the players starting to grip their sticks a little bit too hard and try to make the perfect play as they look to avoid another loss.

Yakubowski said that’s something that they need to stay away from if they hope to pick up their first win of 2014 against the Pats.

“We’ve just got to keep playing simple and not overthink it,” he said.  “We’re playing good hockey and we’re giving ourselves a chance to win and that’s what we want to do game-in and game-out and if we keep doing that for these games to come, the wins will come.”

One of the biggest contributing factors to the Warriors struggles over the past five games has been the fact that they’re missing the catalyst for their offence in Brayden Point, who’s away with Team Canada at the 2015 World Junior Hockey Championship.

“He’s skilled player that can make plays out of nothing, but we’ve still got some skilled players here, so we’ve just got to simplify things, get pucks to the net, get bodies to the net and bang in the dirty ones, that’s how we’re going to score most of our goals when he’s gone,” said Yakubowski.

Regina is coming off back-to-back wins, including a 5-3 win over the Saskatoon Blades on Tuesday night.  They currently sit second in the East Division at 22-12-2-0, while the Warriors are tied for fourth with Prince Albert at 15-19-2-1.

Some good news for Moose Jaw is that they could see the return of Noah Gregor from injury.  He’s missed the last 27 games with a shoulder injury, but was back taking contact this week at practice.

The Warriors and Pats hit the ice at 7:00pm for the New Years Eve showdown.  The Pre-Game Show is on the air at 6:40pm on Country 100.