The Vancouver Warriors fell to 5-6 following a 10-7 loss to the Saskatchewan Rush. With the loss, Vancouver falls out of a playoff spot. The Warriors are tied at 5-6 with the Philadelphia Wings and San Diego Seals. The Ottawa Black Bears sit at 5-5, and all four teams will be battling for a playoff spot in a playoff race that will come down to the wire.
Despite the disappointing result, head coach and general manager Curt Malawsky praised the play of goaltender Aden Walsh, who was battling the flu heading into Friday’s game, as well as Keegan Bal and defender Ryan Dilks. “Aden Walsh was okay coming off the flu and not practicing this morning or going to shoot-around. He was in bed until he got to the rink at three o’clock, so he’s around 70 percent. I like the way he played. I thought Ryan Dilks was outstanding, and , I thought Keegan Bal was really good. (Alec Stathakis) battled against a tough face-off guy from Duke, he was really good too, and (Stathakis) played hard. Our defense has been great.”
The Warriors have played games for eight weeks in a row, and with so many consecutive games, injuries are inevitable. Fortunately for Vancouver, they have a bye this upcoming week so they can get players back healthy. Malawsky touched on how important the bye week is to his team.
“We are so beat up. We didn’t think Owen Grant was (going to play), (Jeff Cornwall) wasn’t going to (play), our goalie didn’t practice today, (Aden Walsh) went home and went to bed, and he came back here. (Jeff Cornwall) could barely run last night, and we put him back in the lineup because he played well the other night. So we’re chopped up, and (Brayden Laity) is nicked up now.”
Charbs SCORES‼️
VAN – 5
SSK – 10 pic.twitter.com/zMFy5aHwwP— Vancouver Warriors (@VanWarriors) February 22, 2025
Defender Steph Charbonneau scored his first goal of the season in the fourth quarter as the Warriors started to make a comeback after falling behind 10-4. Postgame, Charbonneau spoke on how Vancouver needs to stick to their game plan and put in a full 60-minute effort to be successful. “(We) just need to keep putting together a full 60 minutes .Maybe we lapsed a few times, we had our game plan and stuff that we prepared for, but we slipped up. So just sticking to the game plan, keeping that stuff in mind. But we’re great defensively, and our goaltending is great when we play our way. So just a matter of, like I said, sticking to the game plan, playing where our feet are, and playing a full 60 (minutes).”
Just like his coach, Charbonneau also noted the play of the defense as well as Aden Walsh. He added that being a tough team to play against is important if they want to have success the rest of the season. “We’re playing well defensively, goaltending was great. (Aden Walsh), as always, is outstanding. Just being tough to play against, playing a full 60 (minutes),we know our job, and we know what to do. It’s just a matter of doing it for a full 60 and being tough to play against.”
After the bye week, Vancouver heads down to San Diego to face the Seals on March 7th.