Epic finish to epic series as Warriors take conference title

Lakovic morphs into “Mr. OT” for Moose Jaw

Lynden Lakovic, top left, reacts to scoring his OT winner.

Lynden Lakovic will be “Mr. OT” forever to the city of Moose Jaw.

On Tuesday night playing before a campaign high crowd of 13,240 spectators at the SaskTel Centre, the 17-year-old sophomore right-winger gave what was arguably the greatest WHL post-season series ever played a fitting finish. In a series deciding Game 7 of the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship Series, Lakovic’s Moose Jaw Warriors went into overtime locked in a 2-2 tie with the host Saskatoon Blades.

That marked the sixth time both clubs went to overtime to decide a game in the series, which is a record for the WHL. Just 36 seconds into overtime, Lakovic drove down the right wing into the Saskatoon zone. From a bad angle, Lakovic backhanded the puck toward the Saskatoon net.

Warriors fans cheer their team’s OT winning goal.

Warriors star overage right-winger Atley Calvert drove towards the Saskatoon net while being covered by Blades utility winger Tyler Parr. The puck from Lakovic’s backhand deflected off Parr’s skate into the Saskatoon net to deliver the Warriors to a 3-2 victory in the extra session.

The Game 7 win on Tuesday allowed the Warriors to take the series 4-3 and capture their second Eastern Conference title in team history with the first coming back in 2006. When his latest overtime winner went in, Lakovic said it was a euphoric moment.

The Warriors celebrate their Game 7 OT win.

“It was just pure excitement,” said Lakovic. “I know you probably want like a cool celebration or something, but you can’t really just think of anything.

“So many things are going through your head. You just get so excited you just want to hug all the guys, because without them you wouldn’t be here. I do it for them.”

Lakovic also had the overtime winner in the Warriors 4-3 victory in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final at the Moose Jaw Events Centre in Moose Jaw on Sunday. He also had an extra time winner back on March 30 in a Warriors 5-4 victory over the Brandon Wheat Kings in Game 2 of an opening round series at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.

The Warriors celebrate with players who were scratched and coaches.

Warriors captain Denton Mateychuk said it was cool that Lakovic has come through in multiple big moments in overtime.

“That is awesome,” said Mateychuk. “That is great to see.

“He has been here for a couple of years now. He came in as a young guy and kind of fit in right with our top nine pretty much. He has been a great player for us.

“He doesn’t shy away from those moments, which is great to see.”

With the Eastern Conference title win, the Warriors advance to face the Portland Winterhawks in the WHL Championship Series. The Winterhawks claimed the WHL’s Western Conference Championship Series in six games over the Prince George Cougars.

The Blades react to their Game 7 overtime loss.

Portland closed out the Western Conference final on Monday with a 2-1 victory over the Cougars in double overtime in Game 6 at the CN Centre in Prince George. Standout left-winger Josh Davies scored the winner at the 5:40 mark of the second extra session for the Winterhawks.

Game 1 of the WHL Championship Series is set for Friday at 7 p.m. local time at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland.

In Tuesday’s Game 7 of the Eastern Conference final, the Blades came firing out of the gates to the huge roars of the crowd holding a 7-1 edge in shots on goal over the first 6:39 of the opening frame. Warriors star netminder Jackson Unger stood tall, which included stopping a good backhand chance from Blades gritty left-winger Vaughn Watterodt at the right side of the Moose Jaw net.

The Blades and Warriors go through traditional post-series hand shakes.

The Warriors took the wind out of the home crowd’s sails with 6:25 remaining in the opening frame with a positive bounce goal. Warriors offensive-defenceman Kalem Parker took a shot from the point that was deflected by left-winger Ethan Semeniuk in front of the net.

Semeniuk’s deflection hit the right post of the Saskatoon goal, deflected off the back of the leg of Blades breakout rookie netminder Evan Gardner and went into the net. That tally gave the Warriors a 1-0 lead. The officials video reviewed that goal and concluded it was a goal.

Denton Mateychuk (#5) receives the Eastern Conference title trophy.

The Warriors finished the frame with a good surge of chances. When the first period ended, the Warriors held a 1-0 lead, while the Blades had a 9-7 edge on shots on goal.

The Warriors came with pressure to start the second holding a 5-2 edge in shots on goal in the first 10:15 of the frame. At that point, the Blades found another gear and outshot the Warriors 15-4 through the rest of the stanza.

With 7:38 remaining in the second, Blades standout overage left-winger Easton Armstrong roofed a backhand shot past Unger to even the score at 1-1. Armstrong’s goal brought the crowd at the SaskTel Centre back to life.

Warriors fans salute their team’s Eastern Conference title win.

Blades captain Trevor Wong thought his squad played a sound game despite coming up on the wrong end of the scoreboard.

“We played real well I thought,” said Wong, who exhausted his WHL eligibility with Tuesday’s loss. “It was a pretty complete game.

“I thought we took over in the O-zone a bunch of times. Moose Jaw, they’ll counter attack you quick if you make one mistake. We knew that, and it happened to us.

“We can’t think about that, because I thought we played a real good game.”

Lynden Lakovic has three OT winners in the 2024 WHL Playoffs.

The two sides started out playing cautiously in the third, which resulted in no shots on goal for the first 3:20 of the stanza. At that point, the pace picked up.

With 9:47 remaining in the third, the Warriors big stars came through in centre Brayden Yager and right-winger Jagger Firkus. Yager stole the puck behind the Saskatoon net from Blades 19-year-old defenceman Ben Saunderson.

After making the steal, Yager centred a pass to the front of the net to Firkus. Firkus buried his 12^th of the post-season to put the Warriors in front 2-1. The sizable contingent of Warriors fans in attendance roared their approval.

That tally would not hold up as the winner.

Easton Armstrong (#27) had the Blades first goal on Tuesday.

With 3:07 remaining in the third, Watterodt positioned himself midrange in front of the Moose Jaw net and blew home the equalizer to the top left corner of the goal that forced a 2-2 tie. The crowd at the SaskTel Centre exploded with their loudest cheers to that point in the campaign.

Wong said the Blades have been great at bouncing back this season when things have gone wrong.

“It was kind of all year,” said Wong. “We’re a resilient team.

“We knew we weren’t out of it when they scored that one. I thought we kind of carried the play most of it. It was huge for Vaughner (Watterodt) to step up there, but that is kind of how we were all year.

Trevor Wong played his final WHL game on Tuesday.

“Guys would step up like that in big moments. That was a huge goal. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get it done, but it just kind of shows the character that we have in that room just pushing back there.”

The Blades actually had the first chance to score in overtime. Shortly after the extra session started, Warriors star centre Matthew Savoie gave away the puck in his own zone to Blade star import right-winger Egor Sidorov.

Sidorov put a quick shot on goal that Unger had to make a smart glove save on. The Warriors would win the ensuing defensive zone faceoff and start the rush that resulted in Lakovic’s winner.

“I’m just really sad,” said Blades head coach Brennan Sonne. “We had a staff, a group, a team of players that just worked so hard to be in this position completely dedicated all in.

Fraser Minten breaks into the offensive zone for the Blades.

“I’m just really sad that the result didn’t go our way.”

Gardner turned away 22 shots to take the setback in net for the Blades. Unger stopped 37 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Warriors.

Sonne believed his club came with a big effort on Tuesday.

“I thought we played really hard tonight,” said Sonne. “I thought we played really, really hard tonight.

“I thought we put ourselves in a good position. We left it all out there.”

Going into the Eastern Conference Championship Series, it was expected the Blades and Warriors would put on a battle, and the series greatly exceeded those expectations that were set at the outset.

Vaughn Watterodt celebrates his third period equalizer.

During the regular season, the Blades topped the WHL’s overall standings with a 50-13-2-3 record and were rated sixth in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. The Warriors finished fifth overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 44-21-0-3 mark.

The two sides split their six head-to-head encounters in the regular season without having to go to extra time. 

In the Eastern Conference final, the Warriors claimed the series 4-3 with six contests going to overtime. Each side won three contests in extra time.

Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary was proud of what his players were able to accomplish with the series win.

Blades fans cheer Vaughn Watterodt’s third period equalizer.

“I think it is such a tight group,” said O’Leary. “We said it all along they just don’t want to let each other down.

“Whether you give up a tough goal late there or you get scored on early like a couple of games ago. There is just nothing that fazes this group. They are just destined for big things, and we saw it here tonight.”

It is believed that only two other series in the WHL post-season have ever had five overtime finishes. 

Jackson Unger made 37 saves for the Warriors on Tuesday.

That included the 2008 Western Conference Championship Series that saw the Spokane Chiefs down the Tri-City Americans in seven games. The Chiefs would go on to with the WHL title and capture the Memorial Cup as CHL champions.

The first round series in 2013 between the Kelowna Rockets and the Seattle Thunderbirds also had five overtime games. The Rockets won that series in seven games after the Thunderbirds opened the set winning three straight overtime contests.

Lakovic said his team’s conference title series win over the Blades felt special.

“We made WHL history tonight I think with six of the seven games going to overtime,” said Lakovic. “It doesn’t get any closer than that.

The Warriors are pictured with the Eastern Conference title trophy.

“I think I said this last time (after Game 6) if these teams were to play 10 series I bet you there would be a different winner each time. I think this definitely did feel like a championship series.”

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