Moose Jaw takes opener of WHL final 3-2 in
Portland
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| Matthew Savoie had the winner for the Warriors on Friday. |
The Moose Jaw Warriors looked good in Game 1 of the WHL Championship Series, but the battle for the Ed Chynoweth Cup is far from over. On Friday night before 6,486 spectators at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon, the Warriors stunned the host Winterhawks 3-2 in Game 1 of the WHL final.
That marked the first time the Warriors have ever won a game in the WHL’s Championship Series. In their lone previous appearance in the WHL final back in 2006, the Warriors were swept 4-0 in the best-of-seven set by the Vancouver Giants.
In Game 1 of this year’s WHL title series, the Warriors came out of the gates flying, and the Winterhawks started out like they were lagged by an airplane flight. The visitors carried play for most of a scoreless first period and built a 2-0 before the second period was six minutes old.
The Winterhawks did find their legs and battled back and had the contest evened up at 2-2 early in the third.
With 3:02 remaining in the third, Warriors star centre Matthew Savoie found himself in close off to the right side of the Portland goal after receiving a pass from star 20-year-old right-winger Atley Calvert. Savoie snipped home his ninth of the post-season to the left side of the net that gave the Warriors their 3-2 lead.
The visitors played composed the rest of the way closing out the game defensively to secure the win.
Major credit for the Warriors win in Game 1 has to go to head coach Mark O’Leary and the rest of the team’s coaching staff. They found a way to get their squad rested up and ready with only two off days since the Warriors claimed Game 7 of the WHL’ Eastern Conference Championship Series 3-2 in overtime against the Blades in Saskatoon on Tuesday.
The Warriors returned to Moose Jaw following the win over the Blades. The Moose Jaw side then proceeded to take a plane flight on Thursday to get out to Portland.
On top of getting rest, the Warriors showed they are battle hardened for the post-season. The experience of going seven games with constant momentum changes against the Blades with six contests going to overtime showed through for the Warriors. No matter what happened in Game 1 against the Winterhawks, the Warriors were seemingly always composed.
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| Denton Mateychuk scored the Warriors second goal on Friday. |
The Winterhawks had a bit of a push back after the Warriors initial spurt of momentum, and the hosts had a 6-2 edge in shots on goal seven minutes into the frame.
Moose Jaw carried the momentum for the rest of the frame ultimately holding a 14-8 edge in shots on goal in the opening 20 minutes. The Warriors best two chances to go ahead came while working on a power player shortly after the midway point of the first.
Savoie had the puck at the left side of the Portland net, and his drive was stopped by Spunar but rebounded out to the front of the net. Calvert pounced on the rebound and drove to the net that was also turned away by Spunar.
Just 77 seconds into the second, Savoie used a long backhanded stretch pass to spring Calvert into the Portland zone on a breakaway. Calvert was hooked from behind by Winterhawks star defenceman Luca Cagnoni, and the officials awarded the Warriors forward a penalty shot.
On the penalty shot, Calvert snapped home a low shot stick side to the left side of the Portland net to give the Warriors a 1-0 lead.
The Warriors kept coming and at the 5:43 mark of the second a trio of their biggest stars combined to give the visitors a 2-0 edge. Centre Brayden Yager started the play intercepting a Winterhawks clearing attempt along the right side boards in the Portland zone.
Yager got the puck down low to right-winger Jagger Firkus below the icing line and off to the right of the Portland net. Firkus put a pass across the face the Portland goal backdoor to captain Denton Mateychuk, who pinched down from this defensive position.
Mateychuk popped home his ninth of the post-season to give the Warriors their two-goal edge. That tally for a short time sucked all the wind out the Winterhawks home rink.
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| Jackson Unger made 31 saves for the Warriors on Friday. |
From the right wing boards, Buttazzoni snapped home a shot that cut the Warriors lead to 2-1. From that point onward, Warriors star netminder Jackson Unger was tasked with making some big saves to keep the Winterhawks at bay.
The Winterhawks would get the equalizer at the 4:14 mark of the third that forced a 2-2 tie. Winterhawks star left-winger Josh Davies had the puck up high on the left side of the Moose Jaw zone.
He made a long backhanded pass across the front of the Moose Jaw net to Winterhawks captain Gabe Klassen to the low right side of the Moose Jaw goal. Klassen roofed a shot to the top left corner of the Moose Jaw net for the equalizer.
That set the stage for Savoie to come through with his winner late in the frame.
Unger stopped 31 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Warriors, who have won their last three straight games. Spunar turned away 34 shots to take the setback in net for the Winterhawks.
During the regular season, the Winterhawks finished third overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 48-15-4-1 mark and were rated fifth in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. The Warriors finished fifth overall in the WHL regular season with a 44-21-0-3 mark.
The Warriors and Winterhawks met once during the regular season back on February 28. Moose Jaw took that encounter 4-3 at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
The two sides will go at it in Game 2 on Saturday at 7 p.m. local time again at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum. The pressure will be on the Winterhawks to take that contest to even the series.
After Game 2, the next three games in the series will be held at the Moose Jaw Events Centre in Moose Jaw. Due to the lengthy travel distance between Moose Jaw and Portland, the WHL final is using a two-three-two series format.
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| Atley Calvert had a goal and an assist for the Warriors on Friday. |
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