A short blast of Rage Against the Machine's 'Know Your Enemy' rang out of the Rec Plex's sound system during last night's game.

By the looks of the dominant effort put forth by the Kootenay Ice in a 5-1 win, they know the Moose Jaw Warriors well enough.

The Ice went 3-for-7 on the power play and rode a scintillating 24-save performance from Nathan Lieuwen to victory.

"We were pretty prepared for this game," said Elgin Pearce, who was an assist shy of a Gordie Howe hat trick. "It's a playoff test - we're probably going to play these guys in the first round so we wanted to send a message to them."

Captain Brayden McNabb, Cody Eakin and Matt Fraser made that message pretty clear, finishing the night with a goal and two assists each. Max Reinhart had a goal and one helper.

The Ice (42-21-1-3) remained four points back of third-place Medicine Hat, who also won last night. Moose Jaw (36-25-2-3) needs one more point to ensure a fifth-place finish.

It wasn't exactly run and gun offence in the opening 10 minutes last night, with the teams combining for just five shots.

One of them went in for Moose Jaw as Spencer Edwards swooped down and lifted a pass from behind the net over Lieuwen at 3:52.

The Ice goalie shut the door firmly after that. With about five minutes left in the period, he came across the crease to get a blocker on Sebastian Svendsen's offering on an odd-man rush. It was a sequence Pearce nominated for play of the year.

Lieuwen kept it 1-0, and his mates did their part on a power play less than a minute later: McNabb danced in through the slot and shot, and Fraser swept in the rebound at 16:35.

Lieuwen made a big glove save on Edmunson six minutes into the middle period to maintain the tie, and again his teammates responded with a goal in fairly short order.

It happened after a Moose Jaw power play slowly morphed into a 4-on-3 advantage for the Ice. That in turn became a 5-on-3. Seconds after it became conventional power play, McNabb snuck a pass through the high slot to Eakin for his patented one-timer from the right dot at 8:50.

Forty-nine seconds later Pearce made it 3-1 by jumping all over a juicy Moose Jaw own-rebound.

"It's great to send them a message that we can bury them. They're going to be down for the next time they play us," said Pearce.

Lieuwen made another tough save later in the frame to preserve the two-goal cushion, crossing the crease to stop Dylan Hood's breakaway.

The Ice pulled ahead by three six minutes into the third when Reinhart snapped a loose puck five-hole past Thomas Heemskerk.

McNabb put Kootenay up four with a wrister from the point 13 seconds into a man advantage. The Warriors then pulled Heemskerk in favour of Brandon Stone.

"I don't know how happy (Heemskerk) is, but it was good, definitely," said McNabb, of chasing his old teammate. "I was pretty good buddies with Thomas when he was here, so it was kind of cool to score one on him."

McNabb's goal, his 20th of the season, tied him with Mike Busto for the franchise record for most goals in a season by a defenceman.

"It's nice to accomplish that goal, but we've still got five games left here so I just want to finish it off strong," said the captain.

He said Kootenay's powerplay bounty came from watching lots of video on Moose Jaw before the game.

"They're really aggressive, so we just wanted to move pucks quick and get lots of shots and get to the net. Heemer's a good goalie, and we just wanted to crash the net and get a goal."

Kootenay's penalty kill was unblemished on three chances. Ice head coach Kris Knoblauch said he still wants to shore up the team's special teams before playoffs, although they were definite strengths on Tuesday.

"We still want to get better at some things, and we still have the time to do it."

HEADSTANDS

It turns out nothing cures nausea quite like standing on your head.

Despite not feeling his best, Lieuwen played his against the Warriors last night.

"Before the game, I had a chip on my shoulder, playing an old rival goaltender (former creasemate Heemskerk), playing a team I haven't had much success against. So it was really important for me to come out tonight whether I was sick or not, and I think I proved myself. That was really good for me."

Coming into the game, Lieuwen had accumulated a 5.60 goals against average against Moose Jaw.

Last night, the quality of Lieuwen's saves were as impressive as the timing.

"When it was 1-0, they could have made it two and he made a couple of saves," said Knoblauch. "We had most of the pressure and we were taking it to them, but they still had some good chances against Nathan and he made some outstanding saves."

The big goaltender wanted to spread the credit around.

"The D-men were blocking shots, and if they're doing that in the playoffs we're going to be able to do well against them," he said.

Lieuwen said he was able to see the puck better last night than he had in a few weeks, thanks to work he put in with goalie coach Justin Cardinal.

"We've been talking about that stuff and I was seeing the puck great, I'm tracking and I'm moving well. That's all thanks to him."

Finally, the credit for his success in sprawling side-to-side saves went upstairs.

"God gave me a 6-foot-5 frame, so I can reach pretty far," he said, grinning. "I'll give that one to Him."

BLACK HAT/WHITE HAT

If the Ice and Warriors do meet in the post season, Kootenay fans will have a villain they already love to heartily jeer.

Early in last night's game, Cody Beach demonstrated the sort of ham-fisted acting skills director M. Night Shyamalan would covet if his Last Airbender sequels ever get made. To the referees' credit, they did not bite on Beach's flailing attempts to draw penalties. Rather, he finished the night with nine minutes himself.

Seven of them came in an unlikely late-game scrap with Elgin Pearce, who was the hero to said villain last night; the much smaller Ice forward held his own, although he also held an ice pack to his face in the penalty box.

The play resulted in Beach's expulsion, and he took the opportunity crossing the ice to blow kisses to the Kootenay bench. His team was trailing by the final score of 5-1, so who knows what that meant.

Pearce, who gives up five inches and 20 pounds, said Beach was eager to fight, slashing him in the back of the legs to get things going.

"I'm not a fighter, but sometimes you've just got to do what you've got to do out there to protect yourself," said the 168-pounder.

It was Pearce's third scrap of the year, but first that didn't come with an instigator tag.

He said Beach has made a habit out of asking him to fight.

"Me and him have a feud, but I don't know what it's about," said Pearce, whose nose was out of joint only in that it was a little crooked after the bout - a perfect look going into the playoffs.

Once he was back on the bench, Pearce got a pat on the helmet from Knoblauch; the coach said Pearce deserved accolades all night.

"Backchecks, sliding to break up plays, taking hits to get the puck in deep: he was really good tonight, and I think that was probably his best game of the year. It was nice for him to get rewarded and get a goal."

Knoblauch noted Pearce hasn't been one to engage smaller players in fisticuffs.

"He handled himself great," said McNabb, who compares to Beach a little more favourably in the size department. "That's the kind of character Pearcey has and we love seeing it - but I don't think we really want that matchup between Pearce and Beach."