Game 2 reaction: Warriors’ stellar showing has team coming home with chance to win WHL title

MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- With the kind of pushback the Moose Jaw Warriors were expecting from the Portland Winterhawks on Saturday night, the general sense was they’d need a near-perfect showing in Game 2 to come away with a win.

As it turns out, that’s exactly what they got.

The Warriors turned in an outstanding effort at both ends of the ice and ended up rolling to a 5-1 victory at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland, sweeping the first two games of the Western Hockey League Final on the road.

“I’m really proud of the group for just being ready to go,” said Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary. “When you look at the regular season and there’s back-to-back games against the same team, it’s so hard to do it again. We knew that Portland was going to be an urgent group wanting to bounce back, but I thought we were on the gas right from the get go.

Even when Portland had a push, I thought we did a really good job of protecting the dangerous ice. The guys just played really well tonight.”

That the Warriors were able to have that kind of a game despite Portland coming with all they had to tie the best-of-seven series was just another sign of what the team has brought throughout the playoffs. Heading into Games 3 and 4, the Warriors have lost only once in regulation in the 2024 WHL Playoffs.

“There’s just total buy-in from the players playing for each other,” O’Leary said. “They don’t want to let each other down, and whether it’s forechecking with a real purpose or sprinting back to get inside in the D-zone or blocking a shot, it’s just total commitment and it’s fun to be around.”

There was little question who the first star of the night was, either.

Warriors forward Jagger Firkus put together one of his best games of the playoffs with two goals and three points in addition to creating chances almost every shift he was on the ice.

That included an absolute backbreaker of a goal moments into the third period to put Moose Jaw up 4-1, with that marker coming after Portland had scored late in the second to make it a two-goal game.

“It started right from the get-go,” O’Leary said of the WHL MVP’s performance.”He can taste it, and with a lot of these guys, the bigger the moment, they play bigger and tonight that was no different.”

While the Warriors believed they could take two out of Portland, actually pulling it off against the Western Conference champions was a bit of a surprise, especially holding them to only three goals in the first two games.

“It should be a confident boost for sure, but we know what we’re up against and it’s not going to be any different in Moose Jaw,” O’Leary said. “They’re fast, they’re skilled, they can make plays and they bring the best out of us. This group loves the challenge of playing good teams, we’re playing a good team and we just need to make sure they see our best.”

One thing that’s for certain is things are going to be crazy on Tuesday and Wednesday back at the Moose Jaw Events Centre, especially with the Warriors two wins away from the WHL title.

“It’s just staying in the moment,” O’Leary said of the team’s mindset. “I’m as excited as the players are to see the atmosphere on Tuesday night, we’re two wins away but we know how hard those wins are to get. They only get harder here as you go, we know we’re going to see another good one from Portland and we’ll be ready.”