Brayden Tracey rang in the new year on a high note as he scored his first WHL hat trick, leading the Moose Jaw Warriors to a 3-1 win over the Brandon Wheat Kings on New Year's Eve at Mosaic Place.

After the Wheat Kings opened the scoring, Tracey scored a natural hat trick with a goal in each period to power the Warriors to the win.

Warriors goalie Adam Evanoff made 28 saves, including 13 in the third period, to help Moose Jaw to the win, which also moves the Warriors 10 points in front of the Wheat Kings for third place in the East Division.

Coming off a meeting in Brandon on Sunday, both teams tried to use their speed to go on the attack throughout the opening period.

Moose Jaw looked to gain the Brandon zone and get extra attack time with their aggressive fore-check, while the Wheat Kings produced a number of opportunities off the rush.

Brandon picked up the game's first goal at 10:31 when they raced across the Moose Jaw blue-line and set up former Warrior Chase Hartje driving the net through the middle of the ice.

Moose Jaw responded just over a minute later when they forced a goalmouth scramble and Tracey scored his 12th of the season to tie the game at two.

The second period was tight as both teams buckled down defensively and allowed a combined 17 shots in the frame.

Playing four-on-four at 5:07, Dalton Hamaliuk and Daniil Stepanov battled with the Wheat Kings along the Brandon left boards, Stepanov came off the wall with the puck and set up Tracey on the right side of the crease where he put in his second of the game to give Moose Jaw a 2-1 lead.

On the power play early in the third period, the Warriors tossed the puck around the Brandon zone and eventually set up Tracey on the right side of the Wheat Kings net where he scored his third of the game to give the Warriors a two-goal lead.

Brandon fought late to try and get back in the game, they outshot the Warriors 13-7 in the period and 29-27 overall but weren't able to solve Evanoff and Moose Jaw went on to the 3-1 win.

Tracey finished with his first WHL hat trick and Tristin Langan picked up two assists.

Moose Jaw was 1-for-3 on the power play and 3-for-3 on the penalty kill.

The Warriors record now sits at 20-8-5-1 and they sit ten points up on Brandon for third in the East Division with one game in hand, and they're three points behind Saskatoon for second with four games in-hand.

The Warriors will open 2019 on Friday with their first trip of the season to Prince Albert to take on the East Division-leading Raiders.  You can catch all the action on Country 100 starting with the Pre-Game Show at 6:40 p.m.