Moose Jaw falls 5-4 to Spirit to start Memorial
Cup
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| Brayden Yager had a pair of goals and an assist for the Warriors. |
On Friday playing before a crowd of 4,893 spectators at the DOW Event Centre in Saginaw Michigan, the WHL champion Warriors faced the host Spirit from the OHL in the opening game of the Memorial Cup tournament. Both squads were making their debut at the event that crowns a CHL champion.
It was a debut that anyone who saw the game would likely not forget for a long time. The contest was a sports marketer’s dream due to the twists and turns the clash took.
The Spirit came out flying and built a 4-0 lead at the 9:04 mark of the second period. For anyone that saw the Warriors play so far in the 2023-24 campaign, you knew the game was not over.
Heading into the final two minutes of the third, the Spirit were clinging to a 5-4 lead. The Warriors had an offensive zone faceoff inside the final 25 seconds of the third.
With about 17 seconds remaining in the third, Warriors star right-winger Jagger Firkus, who was the WHL’s leading scorer and most outstanding player for the current campaign, found himself in front of the Saginaw goal with the puck. He roofed a shot over top of the net, and the Spirit killed off the final seconds of the period from there to preserve their 5-4 victory.
While the Warriors lost, they also came away knowing that they belong in the tournament. After the players skated through some natural initial jitters, the composure the Warriors showed through the WHL Playoffs in claiming the Ed Chynoweth Cup as league champs came back. With a couple of breaks, they could very well have taken that opening contest.
The beauty of the Memorial Cup is you have teams that play in the CHL’s three major junior circuits in the WHL, OHL and QMJHL that don’t see each other to that point in the campaign. You can watch all the video you want of an opponent, but it takes seeing an opponent at game speed to get a better understanding of what that foe is about.
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| Jackson Unger made 31 saves for the Warriors on Friday. |
The Spirit proceeded to find another gear at that point, and they would hold a 17-7 edge in shots on goal for the opening 20 minutes. Warriors star netminder Jackson Unger stood on his head to keep his squad in the contest.
The dam would burst with 32.9 seconds remaining in the opening frame. Spirit offensive-defenceman Zayne Parekh fired a shot from the point that was deflected home by right-winger Nic Sima to give the host side a 1-0 lead.
Momentum would continue to ride on the Spirit side in the first half of the second period. At the 2:13 mark of the frame, Spirit star centre Owen Beck was trying to make a backdoor pass from the left side boards across the face of the Moose Jaw goal.
The puck took a lucky bounce deflecting off Mateychuk’s stick into the Warriors net to push the host’s edge out to 2-0. Parekh picked up an assist on the play for his second helper of the game.
The Spirit would keep rolling and surge their lead out to 4-0 with goals coming from Parekh at the 7:28 mark of the second and rearguard Jorian Donovan at the 9:04 mark of the frame. At the time of Donovan’s goal, the Spirit held a 24-9 edge in shots on goal, and the DOW Event Center was rocking.
The Warriors were in need of a traction moment, and their big stars provided that in spades pinning the Spirit in their own zone for the final two minutes of the second. With 1:49 remaining in the second, Warriors star centre Matthew Savoie stole the from Spirit captain Braden Hache behind the Saginaw net.
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| Matthew Savoie had a goal and an assist for the Warriors. |
Just 37 seconds later, Mateychuk drove home a shot from of the Saginaw goal to further trim the Spirit’s lead to 4-2. All of a sudden, the host side found themselves trying to be saved by the second period buzzer.
With 14 seconds remaining in the second, Yager had the puck in tight to the left side of the Saginaw goal. He worked a give and go with Mateychuk. On getting the return pass back from Mateychuk, Yager blasted home his second of the contest to shrink the Spirit’s lead to 4-3.
The Warriors found themselves back in the contest scoring three goals in the span of one minute and 35 seconds.
Thankfully for the Spirit, the final 14 seconds of the second elapsed, and they took their one-goal edge into the second intermission.
Just 1:52 into the third, the Spirit basically scored off a net scramble situation to push their advantage out to 5-3. During the scramble, Beck pushed a short pass across the face of the goal to 20-year-old left-winger Josh Bloom off to the right of the Moose Jaw net. Bloom quickly directed the puck into the net to give the Spirit their two-goal edge.
At the 8:04 mark of the third, Firkus fired home a shot from the front of the Saginaw net that appeared to trim the Spirit lead to one goal. During the Memorial Cup tournament, video reviews are automatically done on every goal to ensure the play was onside. The review showed Savoie was offside on the rush into the Saginaw zone causing Firkus’s goal to be disallowed.
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| Denton Mateychuk had a goal and two assists for the Warriors. |
With 2:47 remaining in the third, Yager had the puck on the right wing and passed it to Savoie at the low left side of the Saginaw goal. Savoie one-timed a shot home that trimmed the Spirit’s lead to 5-4. Mateychuk picked up his second assist of the contest on Savoie’s goal.
The Warriors would again pull Unger for an extra attacker with 1:45 remaining in the third in an effort to press for the equalizer. Firkus just missed forcing overtime with his in close chance with about 17 seconds remaining in the stanza.
Unger turned away 31 shots to take the setback in net for the Warriors. Oke stopped 22 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Spirit.
While the Warriors didn’t win on Friday, they shouldn’t have any doubts in their ability to win any of their other outings at the Memorial Cup tourney. The biggest goal for the WHL champs is to get their first round robin win as soon as possible to ensure participation in the event’s playoff round.
Moose Jaw now has two days off before finishing the round robin portion of the tournament with games on back-to-back nights. On Monday, they face the OHL champion London Knights (5:30 p.m. Saskatchewan time, TSN) and on Tuesday, they take on the QMJHL champion Drummondville Voltigeurs (5:30 p.m. Saskatchewan time, TSN).
On Saturday, the Knights and Voltigeurs go at it (2 p.m. Saskatchewan time, TSN). The Voltigeurs face the Spirit on Sunday (5:30 p.m. Saskatchewan time, TSN).
In the OHL Playoffs, the Spirit fell in a tough six-game series in the Western Conference Championship Series to the Knights in a battle between the circuit’s two top teams. The two losses to the Spirit were the only setbacks the Knights suffered in the OHL Playoffs posting a 16-2 record to take the league title.
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| Jagger Firkus just missed scoring on a last second chance. |
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