MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- The Moose Jaw Warriors just keep finding a way to get things done on the road in the Western Hockey League playoffs.
Friday night marked the fifth straight game in the 2024 WHL postseason that the Warriors have gone into an opposing team’s rink and found victory, with their 4-3 overtime win over the Saskatoon Blades in Saskatoon giving Moose Jaw a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference final.
And while it wasn’t perfect, it was still enough to get the job done, which is all that matters at this time of year.
“It was an emotional rollercoaster for sure,” said Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary. “I didn’t like our start tonight, but I’m proud of the guys to stick with it and find a way to do it.”
The Warriors’ opening period left much to be desired, eventually leading to a 2-0 Saskatoon lead 1:59 into the second frame. Moose Jaw’s Brayden Shuurman got one back immediately after, though, signalling a momentum change that eventually led to three straight Warrior goals and a late third-period lead.
“I think our first goal was a really important one, to punch back after going down 2-0 was important to stop the bad thoughts from coming in.” O’Leary said. “The second period was a little more even, we spent the first period more on our heels but after that we certainly had our fair share of looks.”
The difference was simply getting back to what had helped them win up to this point.
“The first period, we got a little frustrated and deviated from our structure and things got worse,” O’Leary explained. “Saskatoon is a hell of a team, they can make plays and they picked us apart when we got away from our structure, but we did a better job of that as the game went and we still have quite a bit to clean up here.”
The Warriors took the lead late on a goal by Matthew Savoie, but Egor Sidorov caught a huge break on a one-timer with 1:27 remaining, as his shot hit and broke Martin Rysavy’s stick before deflecting top shelf.
As it turns out, the hockey gods would waste no time paying Rysavy back.
“You feel bad, it was a hell of a block by Rysavy getting in the way of that shot and for it to find its way in is tough,” O’Leary said. “But it was poetic justice in the end, he made a heck of a play on the wall there to start the game-winning goal, so sometimes things come around.”
Rysavy got the puck to Jagger Firkus with time in space in the corner, and the WHL regular-season scoring leader found Brayden Yager in the slot, with the Pittsburgh Penguins prospect ripping a shot home for the 4-3 win with 12:34 gone in overtime.
The Warriors’ top line had been shut out to that point, but as they have so many times this season, found a way to come up big when the team needed them the most.
“That’s a big part of the playoffs,” O’Leary said. “It’s going to be hard and there are going to be lots of stretches where you don’t have any offensive looks and you have to buy into playing good defence. Playing honest hockey is the best thing you can do for the team and eventually you’ll get your look.
“Tonight it took until the fourth period, Yags got his look, and he knows what to do with it.”
Now, it’s a matter of doing it all over again.
The Warriors and Blades will be right back on the ice on Saturday night, with another hard-fought battle expected.
“We’ll review some of the things we have to clean up, we had some trouble on our breakouts tonight and there are some other things we can clean up, so we’ll go over those tomorrow and be ready for it,” O’Leary said.
