The Christmas break is over and the Moose Jaw Warriors will need to refocus quickly with some big games on the horizon this week.

“The teams that can turn that page as quick as possible and come out of the gate firing (in the second half) is going to be the team that is the most successful,” said assistant coach Mark O’Leary.  “Swift Current is in the same boat, but we’re ready to go after a good practice.”

The Warriors will travel to Swift Current to open the post-Christmas schedule against the Broncos on Tuesday before facing them again in a return engagement on Wednesday at Mosaic Place.

Moose Jaw will have four games in five nights as they return to action from a ten-day break, taking on the Brandon Wheat Kings in a home-and-home this weekend.

“We enjoyed our time off with our families, but it’s time to get back to work and we have some pretty important, divisional games that are big in the standings, so we need to get back into game mode,” said forward Noah Gregor, who enters the second half with 19 goals and 45 points in 34 games.

Tuesday and Wednesday will mark just the second time that the Warriors have faced the Broncos during the regular season after winning 3-2 at the Credit Union Iplex on Nov. 18.

The Warriors and Broncos have been in a close battle for second place in the East Division throughout the first half with Moose Jaw leading Swift Current by two points with two games in hand.  They will get to a good chance to measure up each other to start the second half.

“We’ve watched the standings pretty close, they’re right on our heels for most of the year,” said O’Leary.  “Last time we played them, we didn’t have Brett Howden and didn’t have a complete lineup, they’ve made some changes as well with adding Ryan Graham up front, so it will be an interesting match-up and two points that we need to have.”

The Broncos headed into the break with points in their last four games, while the Warriors split their two-game set with the division-leading Regina Pats, winning 5-3 in Moose Jaw and losing 7-3 in Regina.

Coming off the break, the Warriors are feeling refreshed and ready to start off the second half of the regular season on a good note.

The Warriors will be tested against a Broncos team that is getting healthy after dealing with an injury to captain Glenn Gawdin, which kept him out of the lineup since Oct. 28 before returning for three games before the break.

“They’re a pretty strong team, they’re an older team and know how to play in this league, but if we stick to our game, we’ll be fine,” said Gregor.

“It’s always a bit of a challenge going into Swift Current, but we know what to expect, how they play and how their fans get, so we just need to feed off that and we should be good.”

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

Christmas Call-Ups… The Warriors have a number of young prospects up with the team for the week, including 2016 second round pick defenceman Austin Herron.  The team has also added forwards Kale Clouston and Tate Popple, as well as defencemen Matthew Benson and Matt Sanders.

The players will take part in practice with the team and may see some game time as well.