The Moose Jaw Warriors are a win away from the second round of the Western Hockey League playoffs.
The Warriors overcame a bit of a slow start by scoring four straight goals before going on to an 6-4 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings in Game 2 of their Eastern Conference quarter-final in Brandon on Wednesday night.
The win gives Moose Jaw a three-games-to-none lead in the best-of-seven series, meaning a win on Thursday night in Brandon will send the Warriors to the Conference semifinal.
Brandon looked to have scored the game’s first goal six minutes in, only to have Jackson Unger make an incredible diving paddle save, but it wasn’t long after they’d get one for real.
Unger attempted to poke the puck to Lucas Brenton at the side of the net, only for Brandon’s Matteo Michels to pop into the play and jam a shot between Unger’s skate and the post. The game’s opening goal came 8:33 into the proceedings.
The Warriors took absolutely no time to respond.
Less than a minute after Michels’ marker, Denton Mateychuk eluded a defender at the blueline and got off a shot that Owen Berge was able to tip past Carson Bjarnason for his second goal of the playoffs -- matching his entire regular season output.
A mere 1:08 later, the Warriors had the lead. Jagger Firkus attempted to dipsy doodle in front, but the puck slipped free to Brayden Yager at the side of the net and the Pittsburgh Penguins prospect got off a perfect hard-angle top-shelf backhand that snuck past Bjarnason to make it a 2-1 game.
The Warriors received their first power play 1:07 after that goal, and after being unable to score on their previous nine opportunities over two games, it took only six seconds this time around. Yager found Matthew Savioe in the slot for a one-timer, and his blaster would give the Warriors a two-goal lead.
Firkus drew the second assist on the play and hit a major franchise milestone -- the Seattle Kraken prospect now has 17 goals and 37 points in 23 playoff games with the Warriors, taking over the all-time playoff scoring lead from Theoren Fleury.
The second period was largely a back-and-forth affair for the first 10 minutes before the Warriors broke through again.
Savoie carried the puck in on the rush and got off a shot from the right face-off circle that beat Bjarnason five-hole with 9:27 to play in the period.
Denton Mateychuk picked up an assist, and with that, he became the playoffs all-time highest scoring defenceman in Warriors franchise history, passing Nathan Paetsch with four goals and 23 points in 23 games.
There things stood until the 1:44 mark of the third when Roger McQueen got one back for the Wheat Kings, signalling a flurry of chances for Brandon over the next five minutes as the Warriors struggled to regain their footing.
The Wheat Kings kept up the pressure, but as is often the case, the Warriors made the most of one of their rare trips down the ice in the first 10 minutes. Connor Schmidt put a simple shot on net that went off a defender in front and skipped top shelf 7:17 into the period, with the goal the first playoff marker in Schmidt’s career.
Not long after, Brandon ran into penalty trouble, and the Warriors made it a 6-3 game at 8:59 when Mateychuk scored on a one-timer to the slot while on a five-on-three man advantage.
A late Warriors penalty saw Brett Hyland score for Brandon with 2:40 to play and Moose Jaw was caught standing around in their own zone with 1:55 remaining, leading to a Jayden Wiens goal that suddenly made it a two-goal game.
That would be as close as the Wheat Kings would get, though, and the Warriors had their 6-4 win.
Firkus capped his night with three assists, while Savoie had three points on the night, giving him six in three games.
Unger turned aside 35 shots to earn the win, while the Warriors had 41 on Bjarnason.
Game 4 of the series drops the puck in Brandon at 6 p.m. on Thursday.
