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The Warriors were victorious in their Think Pink game against the visiting Brock Badgers on Friday night. Forward Josh Schappert (Winnipeg, Man.) had two goals to lead the Warriors to victory while Keaton Hartigan (Kitchener, Ont.) stood tall to preserve the Warriors seventh win of the season.
Schappert put the Warriors on the board just a minute into the game from in close. Goaltender Hartigan, making his second start in as many games had to be sharp in the period as both teams exchanged multiple chances. In the ninth minute, he made two giant saves with his pads when a behind the net pass connected with the Brock forward in front who failed to jam it in. Waterloo was up 1-0 heading into the second period.
Brock came out with jump in the second, drawing two consecutive penalties for a 5-on-3 powerplay. On the powerplay, Brock threw everything they had on net but Hartigan was equal to the task making several big stops, including a point-blank stop off a one-timer.
Brock would equalize the game at one on a strange sequence in the seventh minute. With the team pressuring in the Warriors' end, the Warriors forward was unable to clear the puck at the blueline. The Brock defenceman Steve Miller held the puck and made an off-balance slapshot on net. The shot managed to elude everyone, including a surprised Hartigan as it went past his shoulder to find the top corner.
Early in the third period, Brock would move ahead 2-1 on a three-on-two as Badger Jordan Gignac picked up a rebound to put Brock in the lead 2-1.
Playing down by one seemed to energize the Warriors as they started to dominate puck possession. Midway through the period, Waterloo took advantage of a failed clearing attempt as Tyler Moir (Calgary, Alb.) picked off a sloppy pass and slid the puck over to Schappert who made no mistake putting it past Brock netminder Kurt Jory.
Just three minutes later, the Warriors would take advantage of a Brock give away. Defenceman Steve Whitely (Petrolia, Ont.) picked off the astray pass and fired a shot on net with Jarrett Schnurr (Waterloo, Ont.) showing great poise to pick up the rebound and slide it over to line-mate Aaron Lewicki (Toronto, Ont.) who buried it over the diving Jory.
The Warriors defence was able to shut it down from there as the black and gold won their second straight game. Hartigan made 21 stops while his counterpart Jory had 24 saves on the night. The two wins propelled the Warriors to third place in the West Division with 14 points. They take on Ryerson next Friday and University of Toronto next Saturday, both at home.
