The Moose Jaw WINMAR AAA Warriors were not able to extend their win streak to three games on Saturday night, as they dropped a 4-1 decision to the Prince Albert Mintos at the Art Hauser Centre.

Van Taylor’s fourth of the season with 9:15 left in the first period, was the game-winner for the Mintos.

Lipton’s Connor Miller scored the lone goal for Moose Jaw – his eighth of the season and third powerplay marker of the year.

Ryan Bain suffered the loss for the Warriors stopping 13 shots, while Prince Albert’s Jayden Kraus stopped 28 shots for his fifth win of the season.

The Mintos were able to extend their lead over the Warriors to four points in the league standings. Moose Jaw drops to 7-9-0-3 on the season but remains in seventh place in the league.

The game would begin as a defensive back-and-forth affair with both teams feeling each other out, with only four shots on the net through the first 11 minutes.

Prince Albert would draw first blood at just over 11 minutes into the first period. Ashton Tait would get behind the Moose Jaw defense and cut into the front of the net and backhand it over the blocker of Bain to make it 1-0.

Not even two minutes later the Mintos would strike again on only their third shot of the game. Van Taylor would find himself alone at the back door of Bain and Tait was able to make a perfect cross-crease pass to Taylor and one-timed it past the Warriors netminder to make it 2-0.

Though Moose Jaw had numerous chances they were unable to beat Kraus and finished the first period down 2-0.

Moose Jaw led in the shot department 9-5 after 20 minutes.

The only scoring in the second period was done by the Mintos, just over 10 minutes into the frame. Logan Pickford would fire a puck on net and Bain made the right pad save, but Tait followed up on the rebound and banged it home for his seventh of the season and second of the night.

Through two periods of play, Moose Jaw still couldn’t beat Kraus and trailed 3-0 after 40 minutes.

The Warriors were ahead in shot 21-13 after two periods.

Kraus’s shutout streak was broken, at the 9:11 mark of the third period, as Moose Jaw was finally able to cash in on the powerplay.

Cooper Buhay fired a shot from the point, which hit some bodies in front of the net, Bryce Boughen would then find the puck and put it off Kraus, with Connor Miller following up on the rebound for his eighth of the season to cut the Mintos lead to 3-1.

Miller’s goal also ended a four-game goalless streak.

Prince Albert would ice the game late in the third period. With the net empty, Owen Dyck would fire the puck down the ice and score his second of the season and secure the 4-1 win for the Mintos.

The final shots on goal were 29-16 for Moose Jaw.

Both teams had their fair share of powerplay opportunities with Moose Jaw finishing 1-for-9, while Prince Albert went 0-for-7.

Game two of the weekend series goes on Sunday afternoon at 1:30 p.m.