The Moose Jaw Warriors pressed late for an equalizer but came up short falling 3-2 to the Brandon Wheat Kings Saturday at Mosaic Place.

The Warriors established a quick pace in the first period and were able to exit their zone and come up the ice on the attack.  They had shots off the rush, shots from the point, and plenty of bodies in front of the net looking for deflections or rebounds.

At 6:42, the Warriors won a face-off in the Brandon left circle.  Justin Almeida moved the puck from the half-wall to the goal line for Tristin Langan who then set up Brayden Tracey inside the circle where he scored his 17th of the season.

Inside the final minute of the period, Brando’s Luka Burzan was able to get a breakaway but was stopped by Adam Evanoff.  On the play, the referee had seen that Burzan was tripped up from behind and awarded him with a penalty shot which he converted on to tie the game at one.

Just over a minute into the second period, Wheat Kings leading scorer Stelio Mattheos came down the Warriors left boards and put a shot to the net that went off of Adam Evanoff’s paddle and into the net to give Brandon the lead.

Brandon scored a controversial goal with just over three minutes left in the period to make it 3-1.

While on the power play, Ben McCartney took a shot from the bottom of the Warriors left circle.  As the rebound came between the circles, Brandon’s Ridly Greig crashed the Warriors net and was on top of goalie Adam Evanoff.  The play was allowed to continue and Baron Thompson scored.

Brandon’s goal was allowed to stand even though Greig was issued a penalty for goalie interference on the play.

Moose Jaw pulled to within one nine minutes into the third period when new forward Alec Zawatsky took a shot from the left wall that went off a Wheat King and to the back of the net for his first as a Warriors and 14th of the season.

In the final moments of the game, the Warriors pushed hard and had their chances but couldn’t punch in an equalizer and fell 3-2.

The Warriors will jump on the bus Sunday and embark on a 7-game in 14-day road trip to through the B.C. and Central Divisions.  The trip starts Tuesday in Kamloops, catch all the action on Country 100 starting with the PreGame Show at 8:40pm.