The Moose Jaw Warriors have surprised many across the Western Hockey League over the first half of the season.

The Warriors have the sixth-best winning percentage in the league at the Christmas break, which is unexpected to those outside the organization. The team feels they're right where they should be.

"It's been a season of opportunity, the league is wide open right now and our guys have made the most of it and seized the opportunity," said Warriors associate coach Mark O’Leary.

Coming into the season, Moose Jaw's strength was going to be in their own end and that’s been the case, their 87 goals against this season are the fourth fewest in the WHL.

The Warriors have answered a lot of questions up front as well with Justin Almeida and Tristin Langan leading the way.

Much like the Warriors, Langan has been one of the biggest surprises of the first half as he heads into the break sitting tied for fourth in the league in scoring with 24 goals and 54 points.

"I just came in here and said that I was going to have fun with it, I was going to go hard and play hard," said Langan. "I knew we lost a lot of scoring from last year, so I knew I had to step my game up and it's working out so far for me."

Langan added that he's pleased with how the team has clicked after so many changes over the offseason.

"Our first half was awesome, nobody really expected to come out and do this well, so we'll go home, enjoy the break, come back focused and hopefully we can keep it going into the second half," said Langan.

Almeida has picked up right where he left off last season, posting nine goals and 42 points in 26 games this season. He has only been held without a point in four games this season.

The Pittsburgh Penguins forward said he's excited about what’s ahead in the second half for the Warriors.

"Our game has come a long way, we started off with 11 rookies, so we've had to teach some guys that you've got to play hard and over the first half, we've got better and better, we've been working hard and making strides, so we just have to keep that up," said Almeida.

The defensive core has also been involved offensively, as captain Josh Brook sits first among defencemen with nine goals and fourth with 33 points in 25 games this season.

Jett Woo also sits just below a point-per-game with five goals and 25 points in 26 games this season.

The Warriors feature the highest scoring rookie group in the league with Brayden Tracey leading the pack. He leads all WHL rookies with 30 points in 30 games, while his ten goals are second.

Moose Jaw heads into the break with a 17-8-4-1 record, which is good enough for third place in the East Division, seven points back of Saskatoon for second place, but with five games in hand. The Warriors also lead Brandon by three points with one game in hand.

The Warriors have a 12-day break into between games for the holidays. They return to game action next Thursday when they host the Swift Current Broncos at Mosaic Place to open a stretch of four games in five nights.