Game 7- final chapter comes for epic Blades/Warriors series

WHL’s Eastern Conference title goes to winner

Charlie Wright could potentially play his last WHL game on Tuesday.

Charlie Wright is having a career WHL post-season, and now he is looking for one more big game to keep his WHL career alive.

The 20-year-old defenceman is a career member of the Saskatoon Blades and the longest tenured member of the team. The Blades selected Wright in the third round and 70^th overall in the 2018 WHL Bantam Draft.

The Olds, Alta., product joined the Blades as a 16-year-old rookie in the 2019-20 campaign. In his time with the Blades, Wright played in 256 career regular season games recording 15 goals, 89 assists and plus-43 rating in the plus-minus department.

He has appeared in all of the Blades 15 games to date in the 2024 WHL Playoffs posting five goals, eight assists and a plus-10 rating.

On Tuesday, Wright’s Blades face the Moose Jaw Warriors in Game 7 of the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship Series. The winner takes the Eastern Conference title and advances to the WHL Championship Series, while the losing squad heads off into the off-season.

Wright is tightly attached emotionally to the Blades and is proud and honoured to be a member of Saskatoon’s major junior franchise.

“It has been awesome,” said Wright. “I’ve loved being with the Blades all five years.

“It has been a blessing. I love the city. I love the organization.

“I would say it is the best in the WHL. It is fantastic the way we are treated. I absolutely love it and don’t want it to end.”

Denton Mateychuk leads the WHL with 27 points in the playoffs.

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

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 Championship Series, the two clubs split the first six encounters of the set with five of those contests going to overtime. The Blades have won three games in overtime, while the Warriors have won twice in extra time and once in regulation.

Wright believes it could be the deciding factor in the series that his squad hosts Game 7 at the SaskTel Centre. The Blades are potentially expecting their biggest crowd of the overall 2023-24 campaign.

“I think we earned it throughout the regular season,” said Wright. “It is definitely nice to have it at home and have our fans loud.”

Warriors captain and star offensive-defenceman Denton Mateychuk leads the WHL in post-season scoring with 27 points coming off eight goals and 19 assists to go with a plus-19 rating. Warriors star right-winger Jagger Firkus sits second in post-season scoring with 26 points coming off 11 goals and 15 assists to go with a plus-seven rating.

Blades star import right-winger Egor Sidorov leads the WHL post-season with 15 goals to go along with eight assists and a plus-nine rating.

Warriors veteran centre Brayden Schuurman said it is easy to get up for a game like Tuesday’s Game 7, because the Eastern Conference title and a berth in the WHL Championship Series is on the line.

Egor Sidorov leads the WHL with 15 goals in the playoffs.

“As a hockey player and as an athlete, that is really what you look forward to,” said Schuurman. “I think big Game 7s, big moments, win or lose, winner take all, I think that gets our group excited.

“I think we have a lot of big game players. I think we are really excited to get moving in this Game 7.”

Warriors 17-year-old sophomore right-winger Lynden Lakovic said his squad has to get out to a good start in Game 7 like they did in Game 6. In Game 6 on Sunday at the Moose Jaw Events Centre in Moose Jaw, the Warriors scored first, held 2-1 lead heading into the first intermission, and ultimately won 4-3 in overtime with Lakovic getting the winner.

Moose Jaw fell behind 3-2 in the third before Warriors veteran right-winger Rilen Kovacevic scored the equalizer that tied the game 3-3 and forced overtime.

The Blades have scored first in four out of the first six games in the series. Lakovic said those slow starts put his squad in a spot where they were chasing the game for a short time.

“We have to play a full 60,” said Lakovic. “I thought (in Game 6) we had a really good start, but I though this series I think their starts have been better.

“I think we have to have a start like (in Game 6) and just play a full 60, not give up or let up for 10 or 15 minutes or a period and just keep on going.”

Last year, the Blades won two Game 7s in the WHL Playoffs to advance to the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship Series, where they fell in four games to the Winnipeg Ice. Blades head coach Brennan Sonne said he has unlimited faith in his guys going into Game 7.

Jagger Firkus has 26 points for the Warriors in the post-season.

“We’ve been here before,” said Sonne. “This group went to multiple Game 7s last year.

“For us, it is really just to focus on our competitive habits that would be the main thing. Anything can happen in Game 7. They’re wild, so really it is just about our compete and effort that is what our focus is.”

Both the Blades and Warriors have gotten big saves from their goaltenders in the post-season. Blades breakout rookie netminder Evan Gardner has posted a 10-3 record, a 2.29 goals against average, a .912 save percentage and one shutout. 

Warriors star goalie Jackson Unger has recorded an 11-3 record, a 3.22 goals against average and a .899 save percentage.

Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary said Tuesday’s Game 7 where a conference champion and a berth in the league final is decided are the types of games you want to be in.

“You can smell it,” said O’Leary. “It is right there.

“It is one game. There is nothing you need to say to try and get the players excited or energized for it. Both teams have played the same amount of games here throughout the playoffs.

“Everybody is tired. Everybody is sore. You just really need to bring your very best game for one game and lay it out there with the prize being the chance to play in the final. I think that is special, and this group deserves it.”

Wright said he is going to do everything he can to help his Blades pull out victory. With the way the series has gone, Wright has a suspicion that the series will be decided in one specific way.

“It probably is going to go into overtime looking at the other games here,” said Wright. “It is going to be exciting.

Blades D Tanner Molendyk (#24) battles Warriors RW Lynden Lakovic.

“It is a Game 7. They are always intense. It should be a good game.”

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