That something would happen that would allow them and their potential opponent in the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League finals to take the ice and cap off the single best campaign in team history.
But the word was bad on Thursday afternoon. And on Friday, it was over.
Hockey Canada announced the complete and total cancellation of all sanctioned league and national championships due to the COVID-19 outbreak, meaning that as of last night, the Moose Jaw AAA Warriors season came to an end.
“We just got the e-mail and it looks like they’re shutting it down,” said Warriors head coach Trevor Weisgerber. “It sucks, we’re having exit meetings here this afternoon and it’s all over.”
There was naturally a sense of frustration over the decision, especially considering every major rink in Canada has artificial ice at this point, meaning games could be played deep into summer – and, of course, when you’re a team like the Warriors are, you’d be more than willing to do just that.
“That’s the thing, I don’t understand what the rush is,” Weisgerber said. “What if this is done in April or May, why can’t we finish it then? But they’re fully done as of today, every national event, no finals, nothing…It’s too bad for the season we had and just the group of guys we had. I feel bad the guys, just for where we’re at and how good we’re playing right now, we’re rolling, and it’s disappointing for us for sure.”
But for now, it’s time to let real life take centre stage and do everything possible to help prevent the spread of COVID-19 – a situation the team completely respects.
“100 per cent,” Weisgerber said. “That would be the last thing we’d want, someone to get really sick and they’re hospitalized or even worse, and being part of that situation. At the end of the day you have to look out for your health, and obviously they know more than we do and they’re looking out for the best interest of these guys.
“It's just tough to swallow when you’ve had a season like we did.”
As for the game itself, the Warriors left little to chance in Saskatoon. Ben Wourms-Rowe scored twice and Atley Calvert added another marker to give the visitors a 3-1 lead after the first, Ethan Peters made it 4-2 midway through the third and Max Wanner tacked on a late insurance marker.
Dylan Ernst had 41 stops in the Warriors net and the Tribe themselves had 44 shots on Saskatoon.
“We obviously knew that could have been our last game, and we said to the guys ‘just put it all on the line and leave everything on the ice because this could be the last game’,” Weisgerber said. “We just played a heck of a game, we carried on how we played in the second and third in that game the other night at home. We just smothered them, it was a good team game and fun to watch.”
The win gave the Warriors a sweep of the best-of-three semifinal series.
The Regina Pat Canadians led the Tisdale Trojans 2-0 in the other semi and looked to close out their series on Sunday. That would have set up what would likely have been one of the more epic AAA finals in recent history.
“It would have been fun and it would have been a great series, we battled every game this season against them, and who knows what happens down the road, maybe they’ll decide to declare a winner and we’d be totally up for it,” Weisgerber said.
