Blades wipe out Warriors 6-1

The Blades celebrate a power-play goal from Brandon Schuldhaus.

    It seems Jack Frost might have been a tougher adversary for the Saskatoon Blades than the Moose Jaw Warriors were over the last 24 hours.

    In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the Blades returned to the SaskTel Centre after thumping the Wheat Kings in Brandon 7-3 on Tuesday night. Fighting temperatures that were well below -30 C, the Blades players, coaches and staff members got their vehicles going to head home to rest up for what was expected to be an intense tilt about 13 hours later with Moose Jaw.

    The Blades didn’t show any signs of fatigue when they returned Wednesday night to the SaskTel Centre for that night’s WHL regular season clash.

Kirby Dach had two assists for the Blades on Wednesday night.

    Before 3,281 spectators, they dismantled the visiting Warriors 6-1 holding an impressive 48-20 edge in shots on goal.

    With the win, the Blades improved to 32-13-8 to remain fourth overall in the WHL standings, while the Warriors fell to 28-13-6-2 to remain seventh overall on the circuit.

    “It was a big win for our hockey club, especially after last night’s travel arrangements coming home,” said Blades head coach Mitch Love. “Guys didn’t get back to their billets until about 5:30 in the morning, especially when a few cars didn’t start.

    “It was a little bit of adversity there, but it was a great effort up and down our lineup from everybody. We knew the importance of the game and found a way.”

Dawson Davidson had a goal and two assists for the Blades.

    The Blades stormed the Warriors in the opening 20 minutes outshooting the visitors 21-5. The host side took a 1-0 lead at the 9:46 mark of the opening frame, when 16-year-old rookie left-winger Kyle Crnkovic fired home a goal from the right side of the Moose Jaw net converting a backdoor feed from offensive defenceman Dawson Davidson.

    With 11.1 seconds to play in the first period, Blades captain Chase Wouters banged home a gritty goal on the power play from the front of the Moose Jaw goal to put Saskatoon up 2-0.

    “The Bridge City Bunch” kept the foot on the gas pedal at the start of the second. Just 54 seconds into the frame, speedy right-winger Ryan Hughes slipped a backhander past Warriors netminder Adam Evanoff to give the Blades a 3-0 advantage with his 20^th goal of the campaign.

Ryan Hughes picked up his 20th goal of the season on Wednesday night.

    “Anytime you can end the period with a goal and start a period with a goal, it is huge,” said Hughes. “Knowing from experience that happening against, it takes the wind right out of you.

    “That was good there in the first and the second.”

    The Warriors tried to stop the bleeding at the 12:53 of the second, when star left-winger Justin Almeida potted a power-play goal for his 21^st tally of the season.

    Any thoughts of a comeback were dashed with 1:49 remaining in the second, when Davidson scored a power-play goal off an offensive zone rush to put the Blades up 4-1. Davidson converted a beauty drop pass from high energy left-winger Riley McKay to give the host side a three-goal edge.

Blades captain Chase Wouters fights for a loose puck.

    Davidson finished the night posting a goal, two assists and a plus-one rating in the plus-minus department. The Moosomin, Sask., product has recorded points in his last 11 straight games piling two goals and 15 assists over that span of time.

    “It has been a good little run here,” said Davidson. “I’ve just been playing my game.

    “I haven’t been worried about it. I think that is something that can to players when they get on these streaks. I know I’ve gotten on a couple in the past, and I started kind of thinking about it a little bit.

    “It has gotten in my head where I feel like right now I’m just kind of playing my game and letting things come.”

    Overage right-winger Max Gerlach wired home a power-play goal for his 32^nd marker of the campaign and overage rearguard Brandon Schuldhaus hammered home a power-play goal of his own to round out the Blades scoring in the third.

Warriors D Jett Woo and Blades RW Kristian Roykas-Marthinsen scrum it up.

    Nolan Maier turned away 19 shots in goal for the Blades. Adam Evanoff stopped 42 shots in goal for the Warriors.

    Crnkovic had helpers on the final two Saskatoon goals to finish the contest with a three-point night. Veteran defenceman Nolan Kneen had a pair of assists for the Blades.

    Wednesday’s encounter included some rough stuff as the final result was well in hand. With 3:20 remaining in the third and the Blades holding a 5-1 lead, Warriors defenceman Jett Woo took a run at Blades star sophomore centre Kirby Dach well before an intended pass got to where Dach was on the ice.

    Woo nailed Dach starting a scrum. The Warriors rearguard received a major penalty for charging on the play which will automatically trigger a review by the WHL office for a possible suspension.

Nolan Kneen had a pair of assists for the Blades.

    Dach, who picked up two assists on Wednesday, finished the game and didn’t look any worse for wear during a postgame media scrum. He thought everyone on his team played well and was pleased to see 11 different players on the Blades pick up points.

    “There are going to be games where your top offensive players aren’t going to be able to produce every night,” said Dach. “You need that secondary scoring, and that is going to help you out in the long run.”

    Dach was proud of how his team played on a short turnaround after returning early Wednesday morning from Brandon.

Ryan Hughes gives a stick to a young fan at the end of Wednesday’s game.

    “Obviously, it was pretty good to get that good start,” said Dach. “We got home late from Brandon 5:30 to 6 in the morning.

    “We got our rest. We got a good meal in us at around noon. We had our naps, and we came to the rink ready to play.

    “I think we put the league on notice that we are there to stay, and we’re a good team.”

    The Blades return to action on Saturday when they travel to Swift Current to take on the Broncos at 5 p.m. at the Innovation Credit Union i-Plex.

    The Warriors hit the ice again on Friday when they travel to Lethbridge to take on the Hurricanes at 7 p.m. local time at the Enmax Centre.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Warriors waste little time in reloading, rally for 3-2 win

Tristin Langan had three points in a Warriors comeback win.

    The Moose Jaw Warriors reload appears to have been a quick one.

    Last season, the Warriors finished first overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 52-15-2-3 record and bowed out of playoffs in a tough second round series that went seven games to the eventual WHL champion Swift Current Broncos. The Broncos finished second overall in the WHL with a 48-17-5-2 record in the 2017-18 campaign.

    Experiencing significant turnover, the Warriors currently have just seven players on their roster that were with the squad last season. If anyone thought the current campaign was going to be a write off for Moose Jaw, the Warriors appear to have their own ideas about how the season is supposed to go.

    On Friday night at the SaskTel Centre, the Warriors fell behind 2-0 to the host Saskatoon Blades in the first period of a WHL regular season clash only to rally back for a 3-2 victory before 3,236 spectators.

Brodan Salmond stopped 33 shots in goal for the Warriors on Friday night.

    The win allowed the Warriors to improve to 16-6-4-1 and tie the Blades, who fell to 17-10-3, for second in the WHL’s East Division with 37 points in the standings. Warriors overage centre Tristin Langan was the main offensive catalyst in the comeback scoring the equalizer and drawing assists on Moose Jaw’s other two tallies.

    With that outburst, Langan, who is in his fourth WHL campaign, has career highs in goals (20), assists (29) and points (49).

    “I think it is just all of my teammates,” said Langan. “We started the season and no one expected us to do anything.

Brayden Tracey had the winning goal for the Warriors.

    “We’re doing really good.”

    The Warriors started out posting a 7-5-3-1 record over their first 16 games. They are 9-1-1 in 11 contests following that point.

    Thanks to their surge of wins, the Warriors earned an honourable mention in the CHL Top 10 rankings that were released on Wednesday.

    Friday’s victory stopped a mini-skid as Moose Jaw had a regulation and an extra time loss in its two previous contests.

    Still, it appeared Friday’s game was going to be a rocky one for the Warriors.

    After the opening faceoff, the first stoppage occurred at the 4:31 mark of the first period, when Blades left-winger Eric Florchuk tipped a pass from linemate Kirby Dach past Moose Jaw netminder Brodan Salmond to give the home side a 1-0 lead.

    The Blades increased their lead to 2-0 at the 9:29 mark of the opening frame, when left-winger Gary Haden dove and made a pass across the face the Moose Jaw goal to linemate Josh Paterson. 
    Paterson tapped the puck into the open side of the cage to give Saskatoon its two-goal edge.

Kirby Dach set up the Blades first goal on Friday.

    The Warriors halted the Blades momentum with 7:32 remaining in the first on a goal from right-winger Luke Ormsby.

    “I think we came off to a slow start here,” said Langan.  “We came in and gathered ourselves (in the first intermission).

    “We came out and played a solid next 40, so it was nice to get the win out here tonight.”

    Moose Jaw tied things up at 2-2 working on the power play with 4:19 remaining in the second period, when Langan tipped home a point shot from defenceman Jett Woo.

    The Warriors netted the winning goal working on another power play at the 9:37 mark of the third period. Right-winger Brayden Tracey wired home a shot from the front of the Saskatoon goal converting a tick-tack-toe passing play from captain Josh Brook and Langan.

    Moose Jaw connected on two-of-three power-play chances and killed off all five of the Blades power-play opportunities. The Warriors even killed a Blades two-man advantage that lasted 1:48 that started near the end of the second period and ended early in the third.

Captain Josh Brook charges up the ice for the Warriors.

    Entering Friday’s game, the Warriors had a dismal 69.6 per cent success rate on the penalty kill. Langan said his Warriors have been focusing on the penalty kill at practice and is pleased to see results are starting to show from that work.

    “I think we were just bearing down on pucks, being hard around pucks and getting pucks down when we needed it,” said Langan. “It was good to see that we killed them off here.”

    Still, the Blades could have come away with a victory had it not been for Salmond making 33 saves in the Warriors net. Nolan Maier, who is the Blades star goalie, turned away 22 shots in Saskatoon’s cage.

The Blades push for the equalizer in the final seconds of Friday’s game.

    With just under 15 seconds to play in the third, Haden got in alone on the Moose Jaw goal for a prime scoring chance, but Salmond turned back the threat with a kick save.

    The Blades pressured for the equalizer in the dying seconds of the third during frantic action around the Moose Jaw goal. When the clock expired, the coaches and players from Saskatoon were arguing there should have been an offensive zone faceoff as the puck disappeared under the bodies of a couple of Warriors players.

    The two clubs will go at it again on Saturday at 7 p.m. at Mosaic Place in Moose Jaw. Langan said his side has to get a good rest in, when the team bus arrives home in Moose Jaw, and watch some film to prepare for Saturday’s encounter.

The Warriors celebrate their win on Friday night.

    The Swan River, Man., product said his Warriors need to embrace the chance to continue to play well in a season where the Moose Jaw side wasn’t pegged to be one of the league’s elite clubs.

    “We’re just playing as a team,” said Langan. “We’re just taking it one game at a time here, so it is nice.”

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Warriors will a way to Game 7 with out of nowhere comeback

Halbgewachs nets winner in triple overtime

The Warriors celebrate Jayden Halbgewachs’ triple OT winner.

    SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. - You could have almost stuck of a fork in the Moose Jaw Warriors, because it looked like they were done.

    Trailing a best-of-seven WHL Eastern Conference semifinal series 3-2 to the Swift Current Broncos, the Warriors showed little life through the first 46 minutes of Game 6 at the Innovation Credit Union i-Plex in Swift Current on Saturday night.

    The host Broncos led 1-0 entering the third period and held a 28-9 edge in shots on goal in the opening 40 minutes. 

    At the 3:35 mark of the third period, Broncos captain Glenn Gawdin fed a backhand pass from the right corner boards in the offensive zone to star right-winger Tyler Steenbergen in front of the Moose Jaw goal. Steenbergen blew home his ninth goal of the post-season to give the Broncos a 2-0 lead.

Jayden Halbgewachs sets to fire home his overtime winner.

    It appeared the Broncos were on their way to the WHL Eastern Conference championship series for the first time since 2001.

    Out of nowhere, the complexion of the contest changed. At the 6:43 mark of the third period, 17-year-old Warriors defenceman Jett Woo fired home a point shot to cut Swift Current’s edge to 2-1. From that moment onwards, the Warriors, who last made the WHL Eastern Conference championship series in 2012, played a tonne more jump in their stride.

    With 8:42 to play in the third period, Warriors captain Brett Howden tipped home a point shot from star defenceman Kale Clague to tie things up at 2-2. At first, the officials didn’t signal goal, because the back end of the Broncos net was flipped into the air, when Howden deflected Clague’s shot down into the Swift Current cage.

    The officials checked out the video replay and concluded Howden did score as the net never did come off its pegs. That tally ultimately sent the contest to overtime.

Matteo Gennaro scored the first goal in Saturday night’s game.

    The contest remained tied until early in the third overtime period, when the Warriors caught a break after Broncos Russian import defenceman Artyom Minulin was called for hooking.

    On the ensuing power play, Warriors star winger Jayden Halbgewachs wired home the winner from the left side boards at the 1:14 mark to give the Warriors a 3-2 victory. The result sent the majority of the sellout crowd of 2,890 home disappointed outside of the healthy contingent of fans that came from Moose Jaw to support the Warriors.

    Halbgewachs’ goal allowed the Warriors to even the series up at 3-3 and force a series deciding Game 7 to be held Monday at 7 p.m. at Mosaic Place in Moose Jaw. The winner of that contest will face the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the best-of-seven WHL Eastern Conference Championship series.

Warriors goalie Brody Willms makes one of 58 saves.

    On Saturday night, The Broncos came out and peppered Warriors netminder Brody Willms with 12 shots in the opening 20 minutes. The 19-year-old was the key reason the Warriors were able to escape the frame locked in a 0-0 tie.

    Actually, the Warriors almost exited the first with the lead. Broncos netminder Stuart Skinner only faced four shots in the first, but with the Warriors working on the power play late in the frame, he turned away Halbgewachs on a backdoor chance.

    The hosts continued their onslaught of shots in the second, and the Broncos finally took a 1-0 lead with 6:17 to play in the frame.

Tyler Steenbergen put the Broncos up 2-0 early in the third.

    Working on a power play, overage centre Matteo Gennaro tipped home a point shot from Minulin to give the Broncos the edge.

    After Steenbergen scored early in the third to give the Broncos a 2-0 lead, the Innovation Credit Union i-Plex was jumping. All that did was set the stage for what seemed like an improbably Warriors comeback.

    The Broncos had a power play in the first overtime period, but were unable to net the goal that would have won the series.

    Willms made 58 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Warriors. Skinner turned away 35 shots to take the setback in goal for the Broncos.

    In the immediate aftermath of Saturday’s clash, the Broncos will see the overtime loss as one of those games that got away. The Warriors can say the same thing about Game 4 of the series last Wednesday in Swift Current, where the Broncos pulled out a 3-2 victory in double overtime.

Jett Woo’s goal sparked a rally by the Warriors.

    In all reality, the fact that this series is going to a Game 7 likely does justice to the work both sides have put in over the first six games.

    It was expected the Warriors and Broncos would engage in a heavyweight tilt, and that tilt has materialized. The Warriors finished first overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 52-15-2-3 record, and the Broncos finished second overall with a 48-17-5-2 mark.

    Now, we will see who has enough gas in the tank to take the final chapter of this encounter.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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