The Moose Jaw Warriors finished off a weekend sweep of the Prince Albert Raiders on Saturday at Mosaic Place with a 7-3 win in their 2017 home opener.

The Warriors had seven goals from seven different players in the win, while Brody Willms turned away 40 shots.

Brayden Burke, Noah Gregor and Tanner Jeannot all led the way with a goal and three points each. Jett Woo, Justin Almeida and Jayden Halbgewachs scored and picked up an assist as the Warriors closed out a successful opening weekend.

“It’s a great feeling, but obviously there’s things that we need to be working on,” said Woo after the game. “We could have helped out Willms a lot more tonight and this just gives us things to work on over the next week.”

Willms was solid throughout the game and really turned it on the third period when the Warriors were outshot 24-4 in the frame. The 19-year-old netminder turned away 23 of those shots and the offence took over to help preserve the win.

The Warriors are confident that their goalie will be there to make the saves when struggle.

“It’s awesome for Brody to get the starting job this year and we’ve known the whole time that he’s been a Warrior that he had that in him and that’s showed here in these first two games,” said Gregor.

Early in the first period, the Warriors fed off the excitement of their fans and came at the Prince Albert net with a consistent attack.  They picked up the game’s first goal at 4:28, when Halbgewachs led a rush down the Raiders left wall and then snapped a shot cross ice over the shoulder of goalie Nick Sanders for his first of the season.

Moose Jaw went up 2-0 at 9:40 with a goal from Brecon Wood, but the Raiders responded with five minutes left in the frame on a goal from Devon Skoleski to pull to within one.

After the Raider goal, the Warriors stormed back inside the Prince Albert line and pressed for opportunities, they didn’t produce a goal right away, but they were able to steal away momentum.

Warriors forward Justin Almeida lifts in his second goal of the season in Saturday's 7-3 win for Moose Jaw over Prince Albert. (Photo: Marc Smith)

With just over two minutes left in the period and with momentum still on their side, Gregor and Burke stayed with a bouncing puck and eventually fed Jeannot for a one-time at the bottom of the right circle where he made it 3-1.

The Warriors went up by three at 13:03 of the second period when Woo let a laser beam wrist shot go that went off the post then off the back of Sanders and into the back of the net. 

Prince Albert responded with a power play goal from Jordy Stallard at 16:21 to make it a two-goal game going into the third period.

Just 53 seconds into the third period, Burke scored his second of the season to put the Warriors up 5-2.  Prince Albert came back with a goal from Parker Kelly four minutes later to claw back to within two.

Throughout the third period, the Raiders pressed and produced plenty of chances, they outshot the Warriors 24-4, but they weren’t able to inch closer on the scoreboard.  Instead, Moose Jaw picked up timely goals from Noah Gregor and Justin Almeida in the final ten minutes to put the game away.

“Our guys are highly skilled and if we get a chance, there’s going to be a good opportunity to score for us (majority of the time) and we capitalized on that tonight,” said Gregor.

Moose Jaw was 1-for-5 on the power play and 6-for-7 on the penalty kill.

The Warriors will now prepare for a pair of home games next weekend; on Friday, they’ll take on the Memorial Cup hosting Regina Pats and then Saturday, they take on the Red Deer Rebels.