It isn’t often a hockey team will find themselves down to their last playoff life and still have plenty of confidence, but that’s the situation the Moose Jaw Warriors find themselves in heading into Game 6 of their Eastern Conference semifinal.
And for good reason -- while they might have lost the last two games of the best-of-seven series, both contests were exceptionally close and a single goal away from seeing a far different result.
That has the Warriors still believing they can get the job done, even after dropping a 5-2 decision in Game 5 in Winnipeg on Saturday night.
“I think we proved again that we’re right there, we’re close, we’re in the same league as this team,” Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary said. “We know they’re a good team and we’re pretty good too, but the margin for error these last two games has proven to be really small and we just have to find a way to get over the hump.”
The teams have settled into a bit of a pattern through the first five games -- one crew or the other gets off to a great start, the other catches up and the third period is anyone’s guess.
It was the Warriors’ turn to come out of the gates like a rocket in Game 5, as they took a 2-0 lead out of the first period. The Ice would tie things up in the second, though, and score the eventual game-winning goal with just under four minutes to play.
Moose Jaw will undoubtedly need that same kind of start if things are to go their way on Monday night at the Moose Jaw Events Centre, and it all starts with their forecheck.
“Something we wanted to do better tonight was pressuring pucks and I thought off the hop we did that,” O’Leary said. “Then as the game wore on, we didn’t have that same bite in terms of pressuring pucks and Winnipeg had a little too much time to make plays, When you do that against a really good team, they’re going to have opportunities and we just need to find a way to sustain that puck pressure and capitalize.”
That includes the defensive zone, where the Warriors were caught for extended periods a few more times than O’Leary would have liked.
“I think we’re doing a really good job of getting back inside so the dangerous opportunities aren’t always there, but we can still do a better job,” he said. “We’re playing a little too safe at times and if you play safe for too long, those opportunities will come for a really good team.”
That they did late in the third period of Game 5, when Matthew Savoie took a pass off the boards from Zach Benson and fired a spinning shot on net that found it’s way home.
“You saw that in the game-winning goal,” O’Leary continued. “We were in complete possession in the neutral zone and we don’t get a puck all the way in, then next thing you know they get a loose puck in the slot and it’s game over… So we’re close, but we’re just not over the hump.”
Being that close gives the Warriors hope they can pick up back-to-back wins against a team that was ranked atop the Canadian Hockey League ranking much of the season.
“We don’t need to make it any more complicated, we just come home and do what we’ve done many times this year and bounce back after a tough loss, and do it at home in front of a crowd I know will be energized.,” OLeary said. “So we’re looking forward to Game 6 and getting back at it.”
Puck drop for Game 6 on Monday is 7 p.m., with tickets available at the Moose Jaw Events Centre box office and at www.sasktix.ca.
