The Warriors faced the Rush for the second time in three weeks on Saturday, Feb. 10. However, this game didn’t go the Warriors’ way. Vancouver started Marvel night on a rough note as defender Matt Beers took a roughing penalty 14:32 into the first quarter and Saskatchewan scored 12:36 into the opening frame. The goal didn’t seem to rattle the Warriors as they scored the next two goals to lead 2-1 at the end of a chippy first quarter.

The second was a different story as The Rush came out swinging and scored two quick goals to regain the lead. Warriors forward Dylan McIntosh got the equalizer to tie the game up at three. Vancouver then scored three more in the second quarter, including a beautiful one-handed goal from behind the net by Ryan Martel. The other two markers came from Keegan Bal.

The game was tied at six going into the second half, with both teams playing each other pretty evenly. After Vancouver had a goaltender interference penalty disallowed, the Rush kept the pedal to the metal, scoring 11:48 into the third quarter. Adam Charalambides tied the game up at seven at 9:11, but the Rush still had a lot of momentum. Saskatchewan scored the next two goals, including capitalizing while Bal was in the penalty box for holding. Martel scored his second goal of the evening to bring the Warriors back to within one.

Curt Malawsky speaks to the media following Marvel Super Hero™ Night. pic.twitter.com/Or4VxX9Ijg

— Vancouver Warriors (@VanWarriors) February 11, 2024

Saskatchewan notched a shorthanded goal 11:54 into to fourth quarter and then another just over four minutes later. The Rush added another powerplay goal with two minutes left before Adam Charalambides got his third goal of the game for Vancouver with 1:28 left. Saskatchewan added to its lead with one last tally on a penalty shot with nine seconds left. The win sees the Rush improve to 3-4 on the season while the Warriors fall to 2-7.

Despite the loss, there were some bright spots for the Warriors. Charalambides played like Superman on Marvel night, recording a hat trick and six points to move to 44 on the season. The penalty kill also clicked for Vancouver as it was super aggressive and created a few scoring chances while being undermanned. In the end, the Warriors’ penalty kill went 4/6 on the evening. Vancouver general manager and head coach Curt Malawsky singled out the efforts of the penalty killers post-game and mentioned how they switched from a box formation to a diamond and how they tried to be unpredictable.

“I thought we tricked them a little bit with a diamond. If you can rotate a box to a diamond, it’s tough for a coach to scheme a play on a diamond and (then) they switch to a box (and) vice versa. So the key is to let (them) into the lanes and (you) obviously need some good goaltending. I thought Aaron Bold was pretty good on our PK, so we just try and be unpredictable there.” Defender Brayden Laity also noted post-game how they’ve worked on coming together on the defensive end and talking through everything regarding their penalty killing prowess.