For the majority of the season, the Saskatoon Blades just seemed to have the Moose Jaw Warriors’ number.
Heading into Saturday night’s Western Hockey League contest at Mosaic Place, the Blades had taken five of six meetings between the two clubs, including a 4-2 battle in their most recent meeting back on Feb. 27.
It was a different story this time around.
One night after officially clinching a playoff spot thanks to Prince Albert and Regina losses, the Warriors turned in a solid showing from start to finish on their way to a 7-0 victory at Mosaic Place.
“I think I just really liked our game tonight,” said Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary. “There's no secret how our record has been against them and it was important for us to have a game like this. We just played the right way, we played hard and we played honest and when there were breakdowns, our goaltender was there and he was the best player on the ice.”
Carl Tetachuk finished the game with 31 saves, and it wasn’t one of those relatively relaxing nights. No, the overage netminder made impressive save after impressive save throughout the contest and was a major factor in how things turned out.
“I think that it instills confidence in the group when you look out there and you know that you have a goalie behind you that can make that save in a big moment,” O’Leary said. “I think it allows you to just play your game and I think we played like that. We played hard, we played heavy, but we played free tonight and we let our skill level take over.”
The Warriors got on the board only 3:47 into the game, as a turnover at the Saskatoon blue line sent Riley Niven and Ryder Korczak in on a two-on-one. Niven hit Korczak with a perfect feed to send the Warriors’ sniper in all alone on Nolan Maier, and a slick backhand later put Moose Jaw up 1-0.
Lucas Brenton extended the lead to two 6:16 into the second, finishing off a series of chances in the Saskatoon zone by taking a pass from Denton Mateychuk into the left faceoff circle and going bar-down with a rifle of a wrist shot.
The Warriors carried that lead deep into the second period, but Saskatoon received a golden chance to get back into the game when Robert Baco was hit with a five-minute major for checking from behind on Jayden Wiens. Wiens was shaken up on the play but was able to leave the ice with assistance.
Tetachuk was up to the task, though, making a handful of impressive saves, including absolute larceny on Brandon Lisowsky in the period’s final minute after the high-scoring forward found space in front to get off a shot in close.
Moments after the Warriors killed off the rest of the power play early in the third, Moose Jaw received a man advantage of their own and made the most of it.
Brayden Yager finished off a slick passing play with Jagger Firkus and Mateychuk with a shot top corner glove side to put the Warriors ahead 3-0.
Less than a minute later, Eric Alarie made it a four-goal lead, outduelling a Blades defender while breaking into the zone and beating Maier top corner blocker side with a shot from the left slot.
Mateychuk added another insurance marker with 5:16 to play, finishing off a flurry of scoring chances by breaking in alone and putting a shot home low glove side.
Firkus then got in on the act with 3:12 left, turning nothing into something as he broke into the Blades zone, broke through a gaggle of defenders to create a partial breakaway and finished off with his team-leading 34th goal of the season.
Less than a minute later, he had his 35th, putting home a perfect pass from Cordel Larson from behind the net to close out scoring.
Mateychuk finished the game with three assists to go along with his goal, giving him 10 points in his last two WHL contests. Alarie also had a pair of helpers.
The Warriors had 40 shots on Maier.
Moose Jaw improved to 35-31-3-2 with the win, moving three points up on 34-23-3-1 Saskatoon for fourth place in the conference and home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
With the postseason now officially on the horizon, it’s time to gear up for the most important games of the season, a process that starts Tuesday night in Winnipeg against the East Division champion Ice.
“We have seven games left, and we're treating it like a seven-game series,” O’Leary said. “We're starting game one Tuesday night in Winnipeg on the road and we just want to play playoff hockey. Nothing changes, regardless of who we're playing. But it's a seven-game series right now and we need to win four of them.”
