The Moose Jaw Warriors went into Saturday night’s contest against the Winnipeg Ice looking for a bounce-back performance after a tough loss in Saskatoon 24 hours earlier.
Through 59 minutes, that’s exactly what they had, holding the Western Hockey League-leading Ice to a single goal and carrying a 1-1 tie into what looked like a sure overtime period.
Then something truly spectacular happened.
With 28 seconds remaining in the game, Warriors forward Atley Calvert won a scramble draw in the Winnipeg end, with the puck going straight to Brayden Yager. The 16-year-old forward got the pass back to the point, and Majid Kaddoura hammered a shot toward the net. Kaddoura’s cannon bounced off a player in front and went right back to Denton Mateychuk at the point, and the standout defenceman put everything into a one-timer. Calvert had immediately gone to the front of the net, and his jumping screen in front of Winnipeg’s Daniel Hauser did exactly what it was meant to do -- and just like that, the puck hit twine and sent the Mosaic Place crowd into hysterics.
Not 15 seconds later, Cordel Larsen saw to it there would be no stunning comeback, going in on a three-on-one and going bar down with a shot to close out an incredible 3-1 Warriors win.
“I think we battled really hard as a team, we didn’t give up at all and that’s big,” Mateychuk said outside a raucous Warriors dressing room. “Everybody was going for a full 60 minutes and if we play like that we’re going to be in every hockey game. Our goaltending was good, our defence was good and our forwards were good as well so we have that going we can be a great team.”
Cole Jordan opened scoring for the Warriors with 4:30 remaining in the first period, with his shot from the point finding its way through traffic in front and past Hauser.
Tanner Brown got that one back for Winnipeg with 6:17 to go in the second, capping off a period where Winnipeg had several solid scoring chances, only to run into Warriors goaltender Jackson Unger time and time again. The 16-year-old netminder made a slew of big saves throughout the contest and finished with 37 stops on the night.
Both teams had go-ahead goals disallowed as the contest progressed, setting up Mateychuk’s late-game heroics.
The contest was especially important given the aforementioned pushback after the loss against Saskatoon.
“I think we knew we didn’t get enough pucks to the net after last game, we only had 15 shots or something like that, so I think we knew we had to get going in the offensive zone and still have a stellar D zone,” Mateychuk said. “I think we did a pretty good job of that, we didn’t give up too much. So we’re happy with our game, and we can build on that. There are situations where we can get better and we’re just going to keep building.”
Now, the scoreboard watching.
The Warriors improved to 36-23-3-2 with the win and combined with Brandon’s 2-1 victory over Saskatoon, sees Moose Jaw once again three points ahead of the Blades for fourth place in the Eastern Conference and home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs. Both teams have four games remaining.
The contest was the final regular-season home game for the Warriors, who held their annual awards night prior to the contest and honoured their 20-year-olds Carl Tetachuk, Majid Kaddoura and Cordel Larsen after the game.
The Warriors are back in action on Saturday, Apr. 9 when they travel to Brandon to face the Wheat Kings.
