The Moose Jaw Warriors will start Wednesday night with a 2-1 lead on the Brandon Wheat Kings and 5:37 remaining in the second period.

That’s where the two sides left off when their Sept. 24 game was suspended due to fog at Westman Place. They will finally complete that game on Wednesday night before playing sixth official meeting of the season.

“The biggest thing will be getting lots of rest and lots of hydration and be ready to go,” said Captain Brett Howden on the, at least, 85 minutes of hockey in front of them on Wednesday.

The plan is for the suspended game to start at 6 p.m. and then the regularly scheduled game will follow at approximately 7:30 p.m.

Head Coach Tim Hunter said the Warriors will just be treating it as an extended game, like a lengthy overtime in the post-season.

“It’s 25 minutes and 37 seconds, so really it’s not that much, it’s like playing overtime in the old days when you played a 20-minute overtime, so lots of hydration for the players, we’ll eat a little earlier and be prepared for it,” said Hunter.

Brayden Watts and Nikita Popugaev scored in the Sept. 24 game to give the Warriors a 2-1 lead when the game was called due to excessive fog in the building.  Both players have since been traded by the Warriors, while goalie Jordan Papirny, now with Swift Current, was in goal for the Wheat Kings in the suspended game.

Starting a game with the lead will be a bit different for a team and the Warriors know that they can sit back on that lead, they will need to attack the Wheat Kings right from the start to ensure they finish off that win.

“We don’t want to lean too much on that, we don’t want to sit back and wait for the time to tick down, we want to take it to them and have the mindset that it is 0-0 and we want to keep pushing for more,” said Howden.

It could be a big night for both teams in the playoff race if they’re able to secure two wins with four points up for grabs in a tight East Division race.

Moose Jaw starts the week sitting 12 points back of Regina for first place in the division, while they lead Swift Current by seven points, while Brandon trails the Broncos by six points.

“To go there in one night have a possible four points, that’s pretty big, so we’re really focusing in on these two games in one night and we’re pretty excited about it,” said Howden.

“It’s a great opportunity in the standings for sure,” added Hunter. “We’ve got a 2-1 lead, so we’ve got to manage the lead, play well defensively and get our game going right from the start and then finish it off in the second game.”

The Warriors are coming off a split of their two games in the Central Division over the weekend, finishing it off with a 3-0 loss in Lethbridge on Saturday.

That was a game that the Warriors feel like they played well enough to win, but couldn’t find the scoring touch needed to come out with the win.

“We had a lot of chances, I hit a couple of posts and we just couldn’t buy one,” said Howden. “We need to start going to the middle of the net instead of staying to the outside and trying to jam in those rebounds. Brandon has some bigger defencemen, so we’ve got to get to the inside and get to the puck.”

The Warriors are 2-0-2-0 against the Wheat Kings so far this season with all four finished games going to overtime. Moose Jaw has dropped the last two meetings.

Everything starts in Brandon at 6 p.m. on Wednesday night. The Pre-Game Show will be on the air at 5:40 p.m. on Country 100.