If the Moose Jaw Warriors had caught a break or two in the early going of Game 6 of the Western Hockey League Eastern Conference semifinal on Monday night, they might have seen much different result.
Instead, the Winnipeg Ice scored a pair of goals less than a minute apart midway through the first period, tacked on two more in the first three minutes of the second and would go on to an 8-2 victory at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
As a result, the Warriors' season has come to an end, with Winnipeg taking a four-games-to-two victory in the best-of-seven series.
“It’s a really tough way to go out, especially that game,” said Warriors captain Denton Mateychuk. “I don’t know if we gave it our all for the full 60 minutes, so that’s kind of disappointing, but we finished the game hard and played hard right to the last minute in the third period and I’m really happy with that.”
Both Warriors goaltender Connor Ungar and Winnipeg netminder Daniel Hauser were sharp in the game’s first 10 minutes, and they had to be, as both teams generated a handful of glorious scoring chances -- none better than when Brayden Yager took a two-on-one pass from Jagger Firkus and Hauser was able to get across to make the save.
The Ice would break through at 10:49 of the period, though, when Zack Ostapchuk continued his solid play throughout the series with the game’s first goal. Only 51 seconds later, it was 2-0 as Vladislav Shilo scored to pick up his first of three points on the night.
That set the stage for the second period and one of the toughest 20 minutes the Warriors have had this season, beginning when Connor McClennon, Graham Sward and Conor Geekie scored in the first 7:33 of the frame, giving Winnipeg a 5-0 lead.
Jackson Unger took over in the Warriors net for the remainder of the period, but Geekie and Evan Friesen would pot two more goals for Winnipeg, and the Ice had their 8-1 edge
Moose Jaw received their first power play of the game midway through the second, and Mateychuk would snap Hauser’s shutout bid with his third goal of the playoffs.
Jagger Firkus then capped an impressive run through the playoffs with his 10th goal of the post season with 1:47 to play, giving him at least a point in all 10 of the Warriors playoff games. He’d finish with 10 goals and 21 points and is currently tied for the WHL lead in scoring.
Unger returned for the third period and fittingly stopped all nine shots he’d face, giving the overage goaltender 28 saves in his final WHL contest. Hauser had 25 stops in the win.
All in all, it was an anticlimactic end to as close a six-game series as there could be, with the Warriors taking a 2-1 lead before Winnipeg won the final three games to close things out.
“The (previous) game we lost in the last five minutes to them, so we were right there and we gave them a pretty good run this year,” Mateychuk said. “We played pretty well in the rest of the games and gave our team a chance to win and that’s all you can ask for.”
Winnipeg now advances to face either the Red Deer Rebels or Saskatoon Blades in the Eastern Conference final, with Game 7 of that series set for Wednesday night in Saskatoon.
Be sure to keep an eye on www.moosejaw.today.com for more season-ending stories in the coming days.
