The Moose Jaw Warriors’ Thanksgiving Long Weekend ended on Sunday with a narrow 4-3 loss to the Swift Current Broncos at Mosaic Place to drop their record to 5-1 on the season.

Brody Willms made 25 saves in the loss as two undefeated teams went head-to-head in their first meeting of season.

There was end to end action throughout the opening period as the teams looked to utilize their speed to create scoring opportunities.

Moose Jaw drove the net hard early in the game, but weren’t able to slide the puck over the goal line, instead Swift Current’s Glenn Gawdin led a rush up the ice at 4:42 and then dropped the puck back to a trailing Aleksi Heponiemi who snapped in the game’s first goal.

The Warriors were able to respond with just over five minutes left in the first period, Justin Almeida burst down the Broncos left boards and drove the puck hard to the net, Broncos goalie Logan Flodell made the initial save, but Jayden Halbgewachs jumped on the loose puck and tapped it in for his fifth of the year to tie the game at one.

In the first period, the Warriors were able to establish a quick transition game, but in the second period, the Broncos closed the neutral zone gaps in an effort to slow Moose Jaw down.

Two minutes into the second period, the Warriors weren’t smooth coming up the ice, Swift Current jumped on a loose puck in the neutral zone and Heponiemi set up Tyler Steenbergen for his WHL-leading 13th goal of the year.

Playing 4-on-4 just past the midway point of the period, the Warriors turned the puck over on their left boards and Broncos’ defenceman Sahvan Khaira jumped on the puck and took a quick shot that went off of Kaden Elder to give Swift Current a two-goal lead.

Early in the third, Moose Jaw found the form that they had in the first period, as they were able to use their speed to attack the Broncos net.  Four minutes into the period, Branden Klatt pestered Broncos behind the Swift Current net, Noah Gregor grabbed a loose puck and drove to the Swift Current net where he slid the puck through the pads of Flodell to pull the Warriors to within one.

Moose Jaw’s momentum was taken away with nine minutes left in the game when another turnover inside their zone ended up in the back of their net to put Swift Current back up by two.

In the final four minutes of the game, the Warriors kept attacking the Broncos net and were able to claw back to within one on a goal from Jett Woo.  

In the final moments, Moose Jaw tried desperately for an equalizer, but would come up short as they were dealt their first loss of the season.

The loss was the first of the season for Moose Jaw, snapping their franchise-record five-game winning streak to open the season.  Swift Current improves to 6-0-0-0 with the win.

The Warriors are now off until Thursday when they host the Edmonton Oil Kings at Mosaic Place.  They wrap-up their seven-game homestand next Saturday against the Vancouver Giants.