The Moose Jaw Warriors’ busy start to the second half continues this weekend with a home-and-home against the Brandon Wheat Kings.

The Warriors are coming off a split of their first two post-Christmas games, which saw them fall 6-1 on Tuesday in Swift Current and then bounce back with a 4-1 win over the Broncos at Mosaic Place on Wednesday.

It was definitely the tale of two games for the Warriors as they put together one of their worst overall efforts in Swift Current, but returned with a strong sixty minutes in Wednesday’s win.

“On the first game back from the break, guys were a little rusty and there wasn’t a whole lot of good in that game, but the positive that we took out of it is we get to play these guys the next day and luckily we came out and put a good effort together, getting the two points,” said goalie Zach Sawchenko.

The Warriors weren’t good in front of him, but Sawchenko also wasn’t sharp on Tuesday as he allowed five goals on 40 shots before being pulled with 4:30 remaining in the third period.

Sawchenko came back strong on Wednesday turning 29 shots in a very steady win between the pipes for the 19-year-old netminder.

“It’s tough, whenever you get pulled, it’s never a good thing, so the next game you always want to try to come back and put together the best performance that you can and the team played great in front of me, so they made it easy,” said Sawchenko.

“In the first game back, I was rusty, so Wednesday night I just tried to control my rebounds, take away second opportunities, make that first save and the team was there to clear out rebounds and things went well.”

The Warriors now turn their attention to the Wheat Kings, who are coming off a split of their two games earlier this week with the East Division-leading Regina Pats, finishing the two-game set with a 2-1 shootout win on Wednesday.

Brandon is currently holding down the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with a 16-15-4-0 record on the year.

“They’re a good team, they’re lower than us in the standings, but they won the league last year and they know how to win,” said Sawchenko. “It’s not going to be easy, but these are four crucial points that will mean a lot in the standings.”

With the Warriors looking to keep pace with the Regina Pats for top spot in the division, Sawchenko said that every point moving forward is huge.

“We’re going to be a real tight race with Regina, we want that banner in our rink and not theirs, and we’d love home ice advantage through the first, second and third rounds, they’ve got a bit of lead right now, but it’s not out of reach and we’re going to do our best to catch them here,” said Sawchenko, who will be celebrating his 19th birthday on Friday.

Hard work will be key for the Warriors against the Wheat Kings as they look to knock them off at Westman Place.

“We’ve just got to go in there play our game, use our speed, keep things simple and the biggest thing is we just have to work hard, it may be cliche, but just compete hard and it will work out,” said Sawchenko.

The Warriors and Wheat Kings face-off at 7:30 p.m. Friday night. You can catch all the action live on Country 100, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 7:10 p.m.

The two sides will meet again on New Year’s Eve at Mosaic Place. Puck drops at 7 p.m. on Saturday.