It wasn’t the start to the road trip that the Moose Jaw Warriors were looking for on Tuesday night.

The Warriors went into Cranbrook and dropped a frustrating 2-1 game to the Kootenay Ice to open their seven-game, 12-day trek to the west coast.

“Definitely disappointing, a little embarrassing, we definitely didn’t show up tonight and it showed with the loss,” said Warriors forward Noah Gregor after the loss.

“Kootenay is always going to work hard and they did that, but it was mostly our play tonight, we didn’t work hard enough, didn’t manage the puck well enough and we just didn’t have it tonight.”

The loss was just the second this season for the Warriors, but the team isn’t coming away happy with the result.

“That was definitely the most disappointing game all season long,” said Warriors assistant coach Mark O’Leary on the Country 100 Post-Game Show.  “We’ve been flirting with this result for a couple of games, we haven’t been happy with our 60-minute game and tonight it bit us.”

Vince Loschiavo opened the scoring with his fourth of the season just under six minutes into the second period.

The Warriors were able to answer back 7:01 later when Tanner Jeannot beat Ice goalie Bailey Brkin with a wrist shot to tie the game up midway through the second.

Kootenay went on the power play with 2:50 remaining in the second and they were able to convert with Brett Davis scoring his fourth of the year to put the Ice back in front for good.

The Warriors fired nine shots on Brkin in the third period, but couldn’t find the equalizer and went on to lose.

“Kootenay is a little bit older than they have been in the past and at the end of the day, to me, they look like a playoff team,” said O’Leary.  “We didn’t make their night any harder, but to their credit, they worked, right through their lineup.  We only had one line that could match their work ethic and that was (Tate) Popple, (Tyler) Smithies and (Jaxon) Kaluski.”

The Warriors put 29 shots in total on the Kootenay net, while Brody Willms turned away 31 shots to keep the Warriors in the game.

Moose Jaw will now look to bounce back on Wednesday night when they continue their road trip in Spokane against the Chiefs.

“If everyone comes to play, we’ve got a really good team,” said Gregor.  “These past few games haven’t been the way that we wanted, but now is the time that we really need to turn it around and it starts with our top guys, our top lines, we’ve got to push the pace and then everyone follow.”

Moose Jaw is 0-4 against the Chiefs in the last five years, which includes a 0-2 record in Spokane.

Last season, the Chiefs posted a 6-2 win over the Warriors on Oct. 25 at Mosaic Place.  Brett Howden and Nikita Popugaev scored for the Warriors and Zach Sawchenko took the loss in net.  Hudson Elynuik led Spokane with two goals and three points, while Kailer Yamamoto had a goal and three points and Jayden Sittler got the win in net.

The last time they played in Spokane was Nov. 21, 2015 and that night the Chiefs posted a 5-2 win.  Josh Brook and Noah Gregor scored for the Warriors, while Adam Helewka led Spokane with two goals.

Moose Jaw’s last win over Spokane was a 4-3 decision Dec. 8, 2012 at Mosaic Place.  Brayden Point and Morgan Rielly had a goal and two points each for the Warriors.

The Warrior last win in Spokane was back on Feb. 6, 2004, when they knocked off the Chiefs 3-1.  Aaron Rome led Moose Jaw with two assists, while Jarad Bourassa, Kyle Brodziak, and Tomas Fleischmann had one goal each.

You can catch all the action on Wednesday night won Country 100, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 7:40 p.m.