To say the least, the Moose Jaw Warriors have looked like a playoff-ready team through their first three games of the Western Hockey League post-season.
After winning their series opener with the Lethbridge Hurricanes 2-1 in double overtime back on Friday night, the Warriors have had nothing but success, including a 5-1 victory in Game 2 at the Moose Jaw Events Centre on Saturday and 6-2 win when the series reverted to Lethbridge on Tuesday.
As a result, they’ll have a chance to wrap up their best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarter-final on Wednesday night -- but make no mistake, the Warriors aren’t taking anything for granted, even with their overwhelmingly comfortable lead in the series.
“It’s a total reset for us, our leadership can help in that area,” Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary said on www.mjwarrriors.ca. “We certainly like a lot of our last game, but there are always areas where we can improve and that’s what we’re going to focus on.”
One thing for certain is Lethbridge has a heck of a mountain to climb if they’re going to make things interesting.
Only once since 2006 has a WHL team overcome a 3-0 series deficit, that being the Kelowna Rockets when they won four straight to defeat the Seattle Thunderbirds in the 2013 Western Conference quarter-final. That series was unbelievably close right from the start, too -- Kelowna won the first three games in overtime before Seattle won the final two in extra time.
That might make it look like there’s a sense of inevitability, but O’Leary is having none of it.
“Anytime you go up against somebody with their back up against the wall, there’s going to be desperation there and we need to match that,” he said.
If the Warriors are able to match what’s worked through the first three games they should be okay.
Goaltender Connor Ungar has been absolutely lights out since returning to the team for the playoffs and was named the WHL’s Goaltender of the Week after allowing two goals in five periods of play through the first two contests and carrying a 0.75 goals against average and .973 save percentage into Tuesday night’s battle.
Ungar now has a 1.09 GAA and .960 SP, good enough for second in the WHL in both categories behind former Moose Jaw AAA Warriors and current Kamloops Blazers standout Dylan Ernst.
Then there’s Jagger Firkus.
The 18-year-old Seattle Kraken prospect put up a natural hat trick and finished the game with four points on Tuesday night, giving him four goals and eight points in the series. That’s good enough for a tie for third in WHL playoff scoring with Winnipeg’s Matthew Savoie (5-3-8) and Kamloops' Logan Stankoven (4-5-9). Regina’s Connor Bedard leads all scorers with six goals and 11 points in three games.
Even with his great start, Firkus knows that letting up at any point would be a bad idea.
“We can’t change our gameplay, we can’t change our work ethic or anything,” Firkus said.
Game 4 is set for 7 p.m. at the Enmax Centre in Lethbridge, with Game 5 if necessary back in Moose Jaw on Friday night.
