MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- The Moose Jaw Warriors have had more than their fair share of games they could have and should have won this season, and much like those outings, they were eft wondering what could have been after falling to the Saskatoon Blades in overtime on Saturday night.
The Blades scored three straight goals, including the winner in overtime off the stick of Fraser Minten, as they went on to a 3-2 victory over the Warriors in Game 2 of the Western Hockey League Eastern Conference final at SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.
The Warriors took a 2-0 lead out of the first period, but easily could have led by four or more just by finishing near-perfect scoring chances. Alas for the local squad, the finish just wasn’t there, and as a result they narrowly missed on taking a 2-0 series lead coming home.
“We left a lot on the table in each of the four periods,” said Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary. “We had our fair share of looks, our fair share of crossbars and when you miss on those opportunities, you kind of have that feeling it’s going to come back and haunt you.
It’s an unfortunate way to lose the game, but there are a lot of positive things coming out of these two games here.”
Warrior fans who followed the team from the start of the season will know exactly how Saturday’s game looked -- not much different from their close-call losses in November and December when they’d fall short despite a similar number of chances.
That’s a reason there isn’t a lot of concern coming home, seeing as how having just one of those opportunities go in would have seen a different result.
“At the end of the day, those things will even themselves out, over the course of a series there will be some nights where they miss on some pretty good looks too,” O’Leary said. “It’s just another thing you have to handle, the easy thing to do is to get frustrated and start blaming different things. All that matters is the series is 1-1 and now it’s a best out of five.”
Seeing Saskatoon stage their second period comeback in no small part due to a handful of controversial calls didn’t make things any easier, but dealing with those situations is all part of the playoffs.
“That was an emotional rollercoaster for sure, with some tough penalties and penalty kills,” O’Leary said. “Just a lot going on there and they climbed back into the game. But at no point when you’re up 2-0 in the first period do you feel comfortable, especially when there’s a lot of hockey left. They can score goals, and in both games we played well defensively, we didn’t give up a whole lot, and they cashed in (on their chances).”
Now, it’s a matter of doing the same at home and ideally putting what promises to be a pair of sellout crowds to good use.
“We’re looking forward to playing in front of our fans in The Hanger, I know it’ll be loud and it’ll be exciting, but we need to get some rest first,” O’Leary said. “Four periods in two days is a lot for the guys, so we’ll get a couple days rest here and be back at it on Tuesday.”
