The Moose Jaw Warriors and Regina Pats first battle of the regular season lived up to the hype on Friday night at Mosaic Place. 

The teams entertained fans in a seesaw battle that went into overtime with the Warriors picking up a thrilling 5-4 win on a breakaway goal from captain Brett Howden in his first game back from the NHL.

“That was big for us, that was a team that we didn’t want to have our first loss to, so it was a pretty fun game with the back-and-forth and just a classic Regina-Moose Jaw game,” said Howden after the win.

The Warriors’ 19-year-old captain returned to the team earlier this week and was making his season debut in the game.

17-year-old defenceman Jett Woo sprung Howden on the breakaway midway through the overtime period and Howden made no mistake on the deke, lifting a backhand over Tyler Brown for the goal.

The Warriors had an answer every time that the Pats started to build momentum throughout the game.

“Great resiliency, great maturity in that department,” said head coach Tim Hunter after the game.

Brody Willms made 30 saves to backstop the Warriors to the win, while Jayden Halbgewachs and Brayden Burke had a goal and two points, and Oleg Sosunov scored his first two WHL goals.

“(Brody’s) been playing huge for us,” said Howden on the team’s new starting goalie. “Anytime there’s a little breakdown, we know that we’re safe with him. He’s got the first stop and we’ve got to clean up the second and third chances.”

“If anyone ever wants to question his ability to be a number one goalie, this game tonight really answered that, they had some great cross-crease chances that he had to make ten bell saves and really answered the bell,” said Hunter.

“Honestly, he was excellent.”

Warriors goalie Brody Willms sprawls out for a pad save during Friday's overtime win over the Regina Pats. (Photo: Marc Smith)

With a ton of energy in the building, the Warriors and Pats went toe-to-toe in the opening period as they fought for their scoring opportunities.

Approaching the midway point of the period, the Warriors were on the power play, but it was the Pats that got the rewards.  Regina captain Sam Steel — who returned from Anaheim Ducks training camp on Thursday — tipped the puck past the Warriors at the Regina blue-line and came down on a shorthanded breakaway to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

Moose Jaw had three power plays in the first period and they were able to convert on their third chance which came with just over three minutes left.  Noah Gregor and Dmitri Zaitsev set up Sosunov inside the right circle where his shot beat Tyler Brown between the legs for his first WHL goal.

In the second period, the Warriors were more consistent coming up the ice, they attached the Pats harder on the fore-check, and they had great second efforts to create more attack time.

On the penalty kill with just over seven minutes left in the second, Brayden Burke picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone and drove quickly across the Regina line.  Burke danced around one Pats defenceman and finished the drive with a shot past Tyler Brown for his third goal of the season to give Moose Jaw a 2-1 lead.

Moose Jaw aggressive fore-check kept the Pats pinned three minutes later.  Sosunov snuck off the blue-line and took a pass from Gregor on top of the Pats crease and snapped in his second goal of the game to give the Warriors a two-goal lead.

In the early stages of the third period, the Warriors got themselves into penalty problems and the Pats made them pay.  Import rookie forward Emil Oksanen scored back-to-back power play goals less than two minutes apart in the first six minutes of the period to tie the game at three.

Midway through the period, the Warriors landed on the man advantage and Halbgewachs scored his second of the year to put Moose Jaw back out in front, but the lead was short lived as Pats defenceman Dawson Davidson scored three minutes later to tie the game at four.

Warriors forward Jayden Halbgewachs gives Moose Jaw a lead in the third period. (Photo: Marc Smith)

The rest of regulation was filled with momentum shifts and opportunities, but neither team converted which sent the game to overtime.

Moose Jaw outshot the Pats 5-3 during a fast-paced back-and-forth overtime period that saw Howden score with 2:47 left to play.

The Warriors finished with 38 shots on Tyler Brown, while going 2-for-5 on the power play and 3-for-5 on the penalty kill.

Moose Jaw’s weekend schedule continues on Saturday when the Red Deer Rebels make their first stop of the season in the Friendly City.  Catch all the action on Country 100 starting with the Westrum Lumber Timber Mart Pre-Game Show at 6:40 p.m.