Things didn’t look good for the Moose Jaw WINMAR AAA Warriors being down 3-0 with 8:12 left in the first period, but they dug deep and scored five unanswered goals to take down the Notre Dame Hounds 5-3.

Connor Miller tied the game at 3-3, 50 seconds into the third period for his 22nd of the season and second of the night.

That set up Grady Hoffman who was the hero on Saturday night getting the game-winner with just over eight minutes left in the game for his 18th of the season.

Ryan Hicks came up huge for the Warriors and was a brick wall after the Hounds went up 3-0 early. He made 28 saves for his 7th win of the season.

Offensively, Moose Jaw was led by Connor Miller and Liam Fitzpatrick, who both finished the game with three-point nights. Hoffman and Dylan Duzan finished the game with two points each.

The win was the Warriors' 20th of the season and improves their record to 20-16-0-4 on the season. They are now tied with the Hounds for sixth place in the league standings.

As mentioned before, it was a slow start to Saturday’s affair for the Warriors.

The Hounds would take advantage of some early penalty trouble by the Warriors.

It started six and a half minutes into the hockey game. Gabe Bugeaud would find twine and beat Hicks for his 11th of the season to take the early 1-0 lead.

After Moose Jaw took their second-straight first-period penalty, Antoine Lavigne would score 11 seconds into the man advantage to make it 2-0 with 9:43 in the first period.

The hot powerplay continued for the Hounds just over a minute later. Danila Shiriaev walked in on the left wing and ripped it past Hicks for his 7th of the season and just like that Notre Dame was up 3-0. In addition, all three goals were scored on the powerplay.

That’s all the offense that the Hounds would get, as the Warriors would start the comeback.

On their first powerplay of the game, Moose Jaw’s Connor Miller would take the puck and find himself in the low slot, and fired it past the Hounds starter Mariko Bercier to get the Warriors on the board and make it 3-1.

Ryder Knutson picked up the only assist on the goal.

That is how the period would end with Moose Jaw down 3-1 after 20 minutes. The Warriors had the edge in shots after the first period 15-14.

Moose Jaw would cut the lead to one early in the second period. On an early second-period powerplay, Miller would find Liam Fitzpatrick on the back door all by himself and he would bury it in the open net for his 31st goal of the season.

Miller and Briltz would grab the assists. The goal would also extend Fitzpatrick’s point streak to 16 games.

Moose Jaw couldn’t find the equalizer in the remainder of the frame and would be down 3-2 after 40 minutes.

The shots would favour Moose Jaw 24-23 after the second period.

It didn’t take long into the third period for Moose Jaw to tie the game. On another powerplay, Hoffman would find Miller on the far post, and he wouldn’t miss beating Bercier for his 22nd goal and second of the game.

Hoffman and Duzan would grab the assists on the game-tying goal 50 seconds into the third period.

The game would remain tied 3-3 for most of the period, until about eight minutes left in the game.

A great pass from Duzan would allow Hoffman to cut to the net and outwait Bercier and tuck it home for his 18th of the season and the eventual game-winner to put the Warriors up 4-3.

Hicks would shut the door in the net and keep the Warriors ahead 4-3. Moose Jaw would ice the game with 51 seconds left, as Liam Fitzpatrick would bury it into the empty net for the 5-3 come-from-behind win.

Caleb Potter got the lone assist on the empty net goal.

The final shots were in favour of the Warriors 34-31.

Moose Jaw finished the game 3-for-6 on the powerplay and 1-for-4 on the penalty kill.

These two teams will complete the home-and-home series on Wednesday night at 7:00 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre. Wednesday’s game will also be the series finale between these two teams.