MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- There are great starts, awesome starts and spectacular starts to hockey games.
And then there’s what the Saskatoon Blades put together against the Moose Jaw Warriors in Game 4 of the Western Hockey League Eastern Conference championship on Wednesday night at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
Two goals in the first 1:07, another at the 8:32 mark and a 3-0 lead in a crucial must-win game for Saskatoon, eventually turning into a 5-4 victory,
And while the game ended up going to overtime in the end, it was those first nine minutes that set the tone for everything that was to come.
“That’s what I’m talking about, the desperation we had,” said Blades head coach Brennan Sonne, referring to his postgame comments from Game 3. “It went away because of circumstances but I loved our start and it was our best start of the playoffs.”
The fact the Warriors were able to make a game of it as things progressed was naturally positive, but the way things began and how they ended -- with a goal by Egor Sidorov off a bizarre bounce 3:39 into overtime -- left a sour taste for the Warriors.
“It’s obviously a disappointment to let that one slide way after we battled back in the first period,” said Warriors captain Denton Mateychuk. “There’s a lot of good things that came out of that game, but it just stings a bit.”
Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary was of much of the same opinion, especially given the lack of sharpness as Saskatoon built their three-goal lead.
“The goals were only thing, but I thought we stood around and watched,” he said. “As big as this game was and as excited we were for the opportunity, it’s just disappointing with the start. But they did what they always do, they punch back and did a great job to battle back into the game, but at the end of the day you can’t start like that and expect to get a bounce late.”
Saskatoon did get that late bounce, with a forecheck by Brandon Lisowsky causing a clearing attempt by Rilen Kovacevic to pop back into the Warrior zone and right to Sidorov in the high slot, and he’d make no mistake scoring the winner.
“It was a great backcheck by Lisowsky, and I was going to try and go between my legs, but I faked backhand, forehand and goal,” Sidorov said. “It’s a huge win for us and we’ll just keep going.”
It was the second overtime win in four games for the Blades -- Saskatoon won 3-2 in OT in Game 2, Moose Jaw took a 4-3 OT win in Game 1 -- and something that Sonne felt was a product of preparation.
“We prepare for this all year long, we have a drill we do every week multiple times a week, it’s on our playoff shirts,” he said. “So it’s just callbacks and reminders for who we are, so we’re ready for it, actually.”
The teams will have a day off on Thursday, with Game 5 in Saskatoon on Friday night and Game 6 in Moose Jaw on Sunday,
