The Moose Jaw Winmar Warriors will need a win on the road on Saturday night if they’re to stay alive in the Sask Male AAA Hockey League playoffs.
The Saskatoon Contacts forced a fifth and deciding game in their best-of-five quarter-final series with a 3-2 victory at the Moose Jaw Events Centre on Thursday night.
It was the first one-goal game of the series, and one that the Warriors felt they had all the chances they needed to win. But the Contacts finished in third place in the SMAAAHL for a reason, and winning close games was a big part of that.
“It obviously wasn’t the outcome we wanted, it was one of those games where we were chasing the game a little bit and we didn’t have our best,” said Warriors head coach Trevor Weisgerber. “We still had a chance to tie it up and win, but it was just one of those games. We’ll put this behind us and get back at it on Saturday.”
Rhett Perrin got the Warriors on the board first, with his goal at 6:35 of the first period the lone marker of the opening frame.
SMAAAHL playoff scoring leader Zach Moore then scored the lone goal in the second period with his sixth marker of the series setting up a winner-take-all final frame.
There, Luke Korte gave Saskatoon their first lead 1:44 into the proceedings before Connor Miller tied things up for the Warriors 1:06 later. That once again set the stage for Moore, who would score the game-winner on the power play with 5:56 gone in the period.
Ryan Bain made 38 saves in the loss, while Logan Edmonstone turned aside 39 shots at the other end of the ice.
Now comes the hard part. The Warriors have already won in Saskatoon once in the series -- taking a 5-2 victory in Game 3 on Tuesday -- and seeing things go to a final, deciding game is something they always thought was a possibility.
“We’ve put ourselves in this situation where we have to go back and win there when it would have been nice to close it out tonight,” Weisgerber said. “They play hard, they were desperate and we just didn’t match what they brought tonight. But we’re a confident group here, we’re ready to go and now we just have to lay it on the line on Saturday.”
There was some good news for the Warriors earlier in the week, as they picked up a host of hardware when the SMAAAHL league awards were announced.
Leading the way, of course, was Moose Jaw Minor Hockey product Liam Fitzpatrick, who was named the SMAAAHL Most Valuable Player and took home the Top Forward award after winning the league scoring title with 37 goals and 73 points in 44 games. Fitzpatrick was also named a First Team All-Star.
Defenceman and team captain Ryder Knutson also received a pair of honours, including the Adam Herold Memoral Award as the SMAAAHL’s top defensive defenceman. Knutson led all defenceman in scoring with seven goals and 41 points in 44 games, good enough for 25th overall among all players. Knutson was also named a Second Team All-Star.
