The Moose Jaw Warriors turned the reigns over to Brody Willms in net this season and he hasn’t disappointed in helping the team to the best record in the Western Hockey League at the Christmas break.

Willms is in his fourth full season in the WHL and he’s already surpassed his career-high in games played with 27 starts in the Warriors’ first 35 games.

Willms has won 20 of his 27 games so far this season, which gives him the second-most wins in the WHL heading into the break. He had won just 25 career games entering this season.

He also sits fifth in the with a 3.06 goals against average. His 0.903 save percentage is good enough for seventh among starting goalies in the league.

“It’s been a good season so far, there’s obviously somethings that I want to build upon in the second half, so just continue to build off that foundation that I’ve set here in the first half,” said Willms.

There has been plenty of big saves at key times for Willms throughout the first half as he figures out what it takes to be a starting goaltender in the league.

Getting use to the work load was the biggest adjustment so far, according to the 19-year-old netminder.

“Day in and day out, you’ve got to bring it every day,” he said. “Being a starter, you’re playing more, so you have to be ready to go everyday, that’s the biggest thing, and you want to keep your confidence up as well and that starts in practice and then carries over to games.

“When you’re getting wins, you’re happy and that breeds confidence, not only for myself, but for the whole team and that’s what we’re going to try to do here.”

Brody Willms sprawls out to make a big save against the Brandon Wheat Kings in the final game before the Christmas break. (Photo: Marc Smith)

Willms has faced a lot of rubber already this season, seeing an average of 31.7 shots per game through the first half. The Warriors have been shorthanded defensively throughout the first half, so there’s an expectation that as the shot total goes down for Willms in the second half, the numbers will only get stronger.

In starts when he’s seen under 30 shots, Willms has a 10-2-0-0 record with both losses coming by one goal (4-3 to Swift Current on Oct. 8 and 2-1 to Spokane on Oct. 18).

The Warriors are leading the entire WHL by four points as they prepare to open the second half of the season.  Willms said the team is pleased with where they are, but they want to continue seeing improvement.

“The first half has gone well, as a team we’re doing really and we’re happy with that, but we know that there’s still a long way to go in the season, games get harder down the stretch and we’re going to need all the wins that we can get,” said Willms.

The Warriors return from the break with a home-and-home against the Swift Current Broncos next week. They head to Swift Current on Wednesday and then host the Broncos on Thursday at Mosaic Place.

Warriors Stay 2nd… The Warriors are still the second ranked team in the country, according to this week’s CHL Top-10 rankings, which were released on Wednesday. Moose Jaw trails Sault Ste. Marie, who entered the break with 20 straight wins. There’s three East Division teams in the top-five with Swift Current in fourth and Brandon sitting in fifth.