By RANDY PALMER
Times-Herald Sports Reporter

Moose Jaw Warriors coach Len Nielsen didn't pull any punches describing his team's performance in their Western Hockey League regular season opener Friday night.

Terrible, horrible, lazy -- all adjectives used to describe the club's play against the Swift Current Broncos in front of 2,227 fans at the Civic Centre.

This for a team that lost 7-6 to last season's Eastern Division champions and could just as easily have won the game given a break here and there.

But such is the way things are when you coach a team that has big things expected of it this season.

"This is the kind of game we could have won if we had just stuck to the plan and not tried to do too much as individuals," Nielsen said.

"I don't think it was a case of us being too fancy, I just think it was lazy. We weren't smart enough out there and we have to make better decisions."

Nielsen was most disappointed with the club's overall team defence -- even knowing that the young and mostly inexperienced defensive crew would need plenty of support, the Broncos had no shortage of opportunities created on neutral zone turnovers that led to odd-man rushes.

"We were as good we needed to be tonight and I certainly won't put the heat on the defence," Nielsen said. "It's a five-man unit and when you're turning the puck over in the neutral zone all the time, I don't care who you are, on defence you're going to struggle.

"You can't do that at this level of hockey and be successful and we were doing it all night. And the guys who were doing it should know better," Nielsen added.

The biggest problem, Nielsen said, likely developed out of the club being far too offensive minded -- with the defense suffering as a result.

"Yeah, we scored a lot of goals, six should be enough to win a game, but I think we were a little too focussed on that," he said. "Too many guys were looking for goals and waiting for it to happen instead of making their own breaks by playing well.

"We created a lot of chances, but they all went to the blue players."

Broncos veteran overager Layne Ulmer was the chief beneficiary, as he scored three goals in the contest and added a pair of assists.

Linemate Duncan Milroy picked up a goal and two assists while Ben Ondrus scored their other two markers.

Ondrus was especially impressed with the amount of fight shown by the two teams in their first game of the season.

"I thought both teams put up a hell of an effort," the 18-year-old forward said. "It was a battle out there tonight and I think it really showed in how we played. There were a lot of penalties and I think part of that is from both teams wanting to win so badly."

In the battle of specialty teams that was the second period, there was little question the edge went to the Broncos.

Swift Current scored twice on the power play and added a shorthanded goals in the middle 20 minutes as they scrapped out a 5-5 tie after two.

The Broncos ended up going four-for-eight total on the power play while the Warriors were two-for-six.

"Our special teams were horrible, that was a big difference," Nielsen said. "And our discipline was terrible. We were putting ourselves behind the eight ball all the time when we should have been taking advantage."

As rough as things may seem in hindsight, there was a point in the contest when it looked like the game was going to be a walk for the Warriors.

That would have been midway through the first, when they built a 3-1 lead on goals from Jason Weitzel, Mitch Love and Sean O'Connor.

Two of those markers were courtesy of relatively shakey goaltending from Broncos starter Todd Ford -- the 16-year-old rookie failed to play the loose puck on Weitzel's goal before letting a harmless-looking bounce off one of his own defenceman into the net for Love's first Western Hockey League goal.

"We certainly capitalized on some things and they did, too," said Broncos coach Brad McEwen. "We had some moments in the game where we could have rolled over a bit but the guys kept battling hard all night."

Dean Serdachny scored 56 seconds after Love's goal and after Ondrus and Ulmer scored in the first 10 minutes of the second, the Broncos never again trailed in the contest.

"It's really important to win the first game like this," said McEwen, in his first season as Swift Current's head coach.

"You want to get off to a good start and with a young guy in net like that a lot of young guys playing. It's great to be able to come through."

O'Connor finished the game with two goals -- his second marker coming in the second period off a great passing play with David Bararuk Ð while Steve Crampton and Tomas Mojzis scored their others. Mojzis' goal was also his first in the WHL.

Barlow stopped a total of 45 shots in taking the loss while the Warriors fired 27 at Ford.

Game two of the annual home-and-home season-opening series goes tonight in Swift Current.