Rysavy, Unger push Warriors to 3-1 victory in Game 3

Blades trail WHL’s Eastern Conference final 2-1

Martin Rysavy celebrates scoring for the Warriors.

MOOSE JAW, Sask. - Martin Rysavy got a monkey off his back and Jackson Unger turned away the push back.

Those two developments allowed the Moose Jaw Warriors to slip past the Saskatoon Blades 3-1 on Tuesday night before 4,483 spectators at the Moose Jaw Events Centre in Game 3 of the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship Series. With the win, the Warriors take a 2-1 in the best-of-seven set.

Entering Tuesday’s contest, Rysavy had gone five straight games without scoring a goal. The overage import left-winger had some tough luck in the Blades 3-2 overtime win in Game 2 on Saturday in Saskatoon. He missed a couple of golden opportunities to put the puck in the net which stuck in his head.

Martin Rysavy ended a five game goal scoring drought on Tuesday.

With the Warriors and Blades locked in 1-1 tie in the third period, Rysavy wasn’t going to miss his chance to get over his string of bad luck.

On a rush into the Saskatoon zone, a shot by Warriors star right-winger Jagger Firkus rebounded to Rysavy. With Blades breakout rookie netminder Evan Gardner sprawled out after making the initial stop on Firkus, Rysavy potted his fourth of the post-season into an open cage to put the Warriors in front 2-1 at the 7:14 mark of the frame and that goal held up as the winning tally.

Jackson Unger made 31 saves in goal for the Warriors on Tuesday.

“Obvious, I was frustrated after the second game in Saskatoon,” said Rysavy. “I had chances to score.

“I hit one crossbar. I missed an empty net there in the first. I was really frustrated that is why today I kind of made sure when I saw the rebound I’m just going to slap it as hard as I can to the net.

“I just don’t want to miss it anymore. It was an important goal.”

After the Warriors went ahead, the Blades came with an intense push back firing 10 shots on goal over the final 10:20 of the third. Warriors star netminder Jackson Unger had to come up with a major stop on Blades star import right-winger Egor Sidorov with about 6:44 remaining in the frame.

Grayden Siepmann scored to give the Blades a 1-0 lead.

Unger followed that stop with the save of the game that likely prevented the two squads from going to overtime for the third consecutive contest. Blades import right-winger Alexander Suzdalev put a backhand shot towards the Moose Jaw net from inside the right faceoff circle.

The puck deflected off Warriors defenceman Kalem Parker to a pinching Blades 20-year-old defenceman Charlie Wright in the left slot. Wright fired the puck to what appeared to be an open cage, but Unger made a diving glove stop to keep the Warriors ahead on the scoreboard. The Calgary product finished the contest making 31 saves to pick up the win in goal.

With 73 seconds remaining in the third and Gardner pulled to give the Blades an extra attacker, Warriors captain Denton Mateychuk sealed the victory. The star offensive-defenceman got the puck in his zone and made a long bank off the boards clear where the puck found its way into the Blades empty net to round out the 3-1 final score.

Evan Gardner stopped 29-of-31 shots in goal for the Blades.

“I didn’t like our first 40 minutes,” said Blades head coach Brennan Sonne. “Our players didn’t either.

“It was just a billion turnovers and lack of dig in, especially in the offensive zone. It was just one and done, one and done, one and done. I thought it was better in the third.

“We finally found a little bit of desperation. We know we can comeback in games, but you can’t play 20 minutes of a game or 18 minutes of a game.”

Over the three games played in the Eastern Conference final so far, Unger has stop 93-of-100 shots fired his way. He believes has found his groove, and he wants to continue coming through for his Warriors.

Atley Calvart (#23) scored the equalizer for the Warriors.

“Every game from now on is the biggest game of the year and in some of our careers,” said Unger. “I think there is everything to play for.

“We can’t let off the gas no matter what. As the games go on, we are getting closer and closer to where we want to be. We have to be at our best.”

Moose Jaw had the first big chance to score in Tuesday clash just under eight minutes into the opening frame. Warriors 20-year-old star right-winger Atley Calvert had the puck at the right side of the Saskatoon net and put a shot through the crease area for a missed chance. At around the midway point of the first, the Warriors held an 8-4 edge in shots on goal.

Fans at the Moose Jaw Events Centre cheer on the Warriors.

The Blades broke through on the score board at the 10:50 mark of the opening frame when 19-year-old defenceman Grayden Siepmann floated a seeing-eye shot from the point home to give the visitors a 1-0 lead. The goal was Siepmann’s first in the 2023-24 campaign.

“Through all the ups and downs, you just keep shooting,” said Siepmann, who has posted one goal, six assists and a plus-nine rating in the plus-minus department in the Blades 12 post-season games. “It is good to finally get that one off my back.

“I feel like I am getting more confident out there. It is only going to go up.”

Atley Calvert had one goal for the Warriors on Tuesday.

The Warriors came with a big push back and outshot the Blades 18-9 in the opening frame. After the Blades went ahead, Gardner came up with a big save on Warriors right-winger Rilen Kovacevic on a rush down the right wing and he turned away Warriors star centre Matthew Savoie on the one-timer to keep the Blades ahead on the scoreboard going into the first intermission.

Just 3:43 into the second, the Warriors evened the score at 1-1 thanks to a slick power-play goal from 20-year-old right-winger Atley Calvert. Calvert had the puck low by the right side of the Saskatoon net, and he banked the puck home shooting it in off the skate of Blades star offensive-defenceman Tanner Molendyk for the equalizer.

Jagger Firkus (#27) had a pair of assists for the Warriors on Tuesday.

Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary said it was that his players continued to carry a top level effort and weren’t derailed by the fact the Blades scored first.

“It is important and not just in playoff time,” said O’Leary. “You work towards that all season long.

“It is a dress rehearsal over the course of the season, and our guys have shown that all season long that if bad things happen or circumstances change it doesn’t change what we do. The standard doesn’t change. Responsibilities don’t change.

“Tonight was another good example of that.”

That set the stage for the third where Rysavy scored the winner and Mateychuk scored into an empty-net. The Blades outshot the Warriors 16-5 in third, but Unger ensured the host side came away with the win.

Charlie Wright just missed getting a clutch goal for the Blades.

Gardner turned way 29-of-31 shots to take the setback in net for the Blades.

Firkus picked up a pair of assists for the Warriors in the win.

The two sides go back at it for Game 4 set for Wednesday at 7 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre. Looking towards Game 4, Sonne wants his club to do a better job at winning puck battles.

“I mean there will be some structural points that I have to go watch right now,” said Sonne, whose club topped the WHL’s regular season standings with a 50-13-2-3 mark. “To this day and I would love to hear from other coaches, but to this day, I have yet to find a structure thing that covers for loosing puck battles.

Denton Mateychuk (#5) scored an empty-net goal for the Warriors.

“If you know of one, let me know. As of right now in the hockey world, I’ve never heard of one. It is pretty simple.

“We have to be desperate at the get go.”

O’Leary said his club needs to be a touch sharper on a number of little things to have success against a strong team like the Blades.

“They check well,” said O’Leary, whose team finished fifth overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 44-21-0-3 mark. “They do a great job though the neutral zone.

“Certainly in front of their net, they block a lot of shots. We need to continue to stick with it and not get frustrated and stay patient in terms of generating offence. There were some things in the third period there that we need to clean up.

The Warriors celebrate their win on Tuesday night.

“Our D-zone coverage, we can tighten things up in front of Jackson (Unger). We expect more of the same tomorrow. We just need to make sure that they see our best.”

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