MOOSE JAW -- The Moose Jaw Warriors closed out their 2024-25 season in style on Saturday night.
The Warriors built a 4-0 lead in the second period and would go on to a 5-2 victory in Western Hockey League action at the Temple Gardens Centre.
The win did come with a caveat: the Broncos, who defeated Moose Jaw 5-3 a night earlier in Swift Current, had opted to rest the vast majority of their top players as they prepare for their first-round playoff series next weekend.
Moose Jaw improved to 15-45-6-2 and finish in 11th in the Eastern Conference. Swift Current falls to 35-30-1-2 and will finish eighth in the Conference and will take on either Medicine Hat or Calgary in the first round of the playoffs.
After getting off to a slow start Friday night, the Warriors couldn’t have asked for a better beginning on Saturday.
Team captain Lynden Lakovic -- who was named the Warriors Player of the Year during the annual team awards ceremony prior to the game -- outduelled a pair of defenders in front of the Swift Current net before poking the puck home for a 1-0 lead only 40 seconds into the contest.
The Warriors had a chance to extend their lead when the Broncos’ Sawyer Dingman was hit with a high sticking double minor at the 4:44 mark, but Swift Current would successfully kill off the penalties.
Some great hustle by Casey Brown led to the Warriors’ second goal, as he beat out an icing call and got a pass out front to Luke Moroz, who then dropped back to Connor Schmidt for a quick shot and goal with 4:55 remaining in the first.
It was a dominant period in general for the Warriors, as they outshot the Broncos 14-4 in the frame.
Things didn’t change much in the early part of the second, as Krzysztof Macias would make it a 3-0 game in his final WHL contest. The Warriors overager got off a shot from the right faceoff circle that would go off a defender in front and into the Broncos net, with the goal coming 1:05 into the period.
Schmidt then picked up his second of the game with 5:52 to play in the frame, taking a feed on the power play from Brown and wiring home a shot off traffic in front. The goal was Schmidt’s 10th of the season.
A minute after that goal, Connor Dale snapped Matthew Hutchison’s shut-out bid, with his long-range shot going off bodies in front and finding the back of the net.
Jaxen Gauchier then got the Broncos back within a pair with 4:26 left in the third, beating his man outside on the rush and tucking the puck home five-hole.
Swift Current pulled goaltender Joey Rocha for the extra attacker with over two minutes remaining, and Hutchison would take a shot at a goalie goal, only for a Broncos defender to knock the puck down. Macias would corral the puck at centre ice, though, and go in on a breakaway before scoring into the empty net with 1:28 left in regulation.
Hutchison finished with 33 saves and recorded his 15th win of the season, while Rocha capped his evening with 37 stops.
