The Moose Jaw Warriors weren’t on top of their game on Sunday afternoon in Saskatoon, doing just enough to skate away with a 5-3 win over the Blades at SaskTel Centre.

“These are the type of games that you just want to get the two points and get out of here,” said Warriors overage forward Brayden Burke.

“The first period, I thought we were alright; the second period was a little chippy back-and-forth, didn’t really have our legs as well; third period, I thought we played well, they scored a couple of goals, but we outplayed them throughout the period.”

The Warriors have now won 38 times in 48 games this season, including picking up a victory in 11 of their past 12 games.

Despite that run of success, the Warriors have played well, but haven’t always been at their best. They’re still able to find ways to pick-up the two points, which is what they did in Saskatoon on Sunday afternoon.

“It wasn’t our best game of the year, but we had a lot of real good chances all night,” said Assistant Coach Scott King.

“These two o’clock games are tricky sometimes, it takes guys out of their routines, but it wasn’t a great first period and we were able to get better as things went along and we could have had 5-6 more goals tonight.”

One big reason that the Warriors have been able to win in games where they haven’t been their best is that their star players have a knack for stepping up when needed. Burke did that on Sunday. 

After the Blades had battled back to tie the game with two early goals in the third period, Burke took a pass in the defensive zone and exploded up the wing before beating Saskatoon goalie Nolan Maier on a great individual play.

It gave the WHL’s leading scorer a goal and two points in the win, pushing his season total to 93 points through 48 games.

“He’s a competitor, he wants to win, he wants to score every game and when he got that puck there in the third period and drove the net, he wants to win games and that was an impressive goal,” said King.

The Blades are a possible first round playoff match-up for the Warriors. Saskatoon has played Moose Jaw tight throughout their season series so far and Burke said they like that.

“These are the kind of games that are tough, they play us hard and try to be physical with us, but we did a good job of staying out of the (post-whistle stuff) and pushing forward to try and play our game,” he said.

The Warriors will get the next few days off from game action to prepare for a two-game road trip to Alberta coming up this weekend. They’re in Lethbridge on Friday and Medicine Hat on Saturday.