Warriors fly to new heights in memorable 2023-24 campaign

The Warriors raise the Ed Chynoweth Cup on May 15 at their home rink.

Jagger Firkus and Brayden Yager got to add an epilogue to a season to remember for the Moose Jaw Warriors.

On Saturday, the two Warriors stars took home some big hardware at the CHL Awards ceremony held at Uptown North Main in Frankenmuth, Michigan. Firkus, who is a skilled right-winger, was named the winner of the David Branch Player of the Year Award along with officially being handed the Top Scorer Award. Yager, who is a gifted centre, took home the Sportsman Player of the Year Award.

Firkus, who turned 20-years-old in late April, topped the entire CHL in regular season scoring with 126 points coming off 61 goals and 65 assists to go with a plus-31 rating in 63 games with the Warriors. The Irma, Alta., product became the first member of the Warriors to ever take the CHL’s player of the year award.

He was the second player from the Warriors to capture the Top Scorer Award, which was first presented in 1994. Jayden Halbgewachs took that honour in the 2017-18 campaign.

Brayden Yager is the CHL’s Sportsman Player of the Year.

Yager, who turned 19-years-old in early January, had a stellar campaign setting career highs in the regular season in goals (35), assists (60), points (95) and plus-minus (plus-19) in 57 games. He collected only 20 penalty minutes on the campaign.

The Saskatoon area product became the third Warriors player to capture the Sportsman Player of the Year Award. Jason Bast first took that honour back in the 2009-10 campaign, and Justin Almeida took home that award in the 2018-19 campaign.

Both Firkus and Yager were members of Canada’s world junior team this past season too.

The award wins came one day after the Warriors saw their historic for the franchise campaign come to an end. On Friday, the Warriors fell 7-1 in the semifinal contest the Memorial Cup tournament being held at the DOW Event Centre in Saginaw, Michigan, to the host Spirit from the OHL.

The Spirit will face the OHL champion London Knights for the CHL title in the Memorial Cup championship game on Sunday (5:30 p.m. Saskatchewan time, TSN).

In 2023-24, the Warriors hit the ice with one of the most talented and deepest teams they’ve ever had. They finished fifth overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 44-21-0-3 mark.

Jagger Firkus is the CHL’s player of the year.

The Warriors went on an inspired post-season run posting a 16-4 record in the WHL Playoffs to capture the Ed Chynoweth Cup and become WHL champions for the first time in team history. They became the first team from Moose Jaw to capture the WHL title since the Moose Jaw Canucks claimed the league crown in the circuit’s inaugural campaign in 1966-67.

On the way to getting to the WHL Championship Series, the Warriors took an epic Eastern Conference Championship Series against the Saskatoon Blades in seven games. A total of six of the seven games in that set were decided in overtime, which is a WHL record for a seven-game series.

The Blades topped the WHL’s regular season standings with a 50-13-2-3 record and led the series with the Warriors 3-2. The Warriors claimed the series thanks to a 4-3 overtime win in Game 6 in Moose Jaw and 3-2 overtime triumph in Game 7 at the SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon.

Warriors 17-year-old sophomore right-winger Lynden Lakovic had the extra time winner in both of those contests. The 13,240 spectators that attended Game 7 in Saskatoon of that series included five fan busses of Warriors supporters who made the trip to the contest from Moose Jaw.

Moose Jaw proceeded to sweep the Portland Winterhawks in the WHL final. The Warriors series clinching victory in Game 4 of that set on May 15 at the Moose Jaw Events Centre played out in almost perfect fashion for the team and fans.

Atley Calvert was a star with his hometown Warriors.

The Warriors and Winterhawks were locked in a 2-2 tie until veteran centre Brayden Schuurman scored for the Moose Jaw side with 5:53 remaining in the third period. Warriors standout overage import left-winger Martin Rysavy sealed victory and the 4-2 final score in his squad’s favour potting a long distance empty-net goal from deep in his own zone with 2:27 remaining in the third.

Over the final 2:27 of the third, the victory was able to sink in for the Warriors and the 4,732 spectators jammed into the team’s home rink. The noise in “The Hangar” after the third period clock hit zero would rival the loudest noise levels ever heard in the club’s raucous old home arena the Moose Jaw Civic Centre, which was best known as “The Crushed Can.”

The impossible dream came true with the Warriors becoming WHL champions. Warriors captain and star defenceman Denton Mateychuk was named the MVP of the WHL Playoffs. In the Warriors 20 outings in the WHL Playoffs, Mateychuk collected 30 points coming off 11 goals and 19 assists to go with a plus-19 rating.

He followed up on an impressive regular season where he recorded 75 points on 17 goals and 58 assists to go with a plus-35 rating. Mateychuk was also a member of Canada’s world junior team this past season too.

Martin Rysavy (#19) had some key goals for the Warriors.

Playing at the Memorial Cup for the first time in team history, the Warriors dropped their first round robin game to the Spirit and second round robin contest to the Knights by respective 5-4 scores in both outings.

The Warriors picked up their first ever win at the Memorial Cup tournament in their third round robin game downing the QMJHL champion Drummondville Voltigeurs 5-3. That win allowed Moose Jaw to earn a berth in the event’s semifinal game.

With how close Moose Jaw’s first two games were against OHL foes, there was pretty good optimism going into the semifinal clash with the Spirit. No one could have seen the Spirit’s fourth line that included centre Ethan Hay, right-winger Lincoln Moore and left-winger Sebastien Gervais going out and having their best games of their major junior careers.

In Saginaw’s 7-1 win, Hay, Moore and Gervais combined to collect four goals and six assists. They each posted a plus-four rating. They were also all pointless at the Memorial Cup tournament going into that semifinal encounter. 

Hay, Moore and Gervais should rightfully get full credit to raising their respective games in one of the biggest contests you can play in as a major junior player.

Lucas Brenon was a steady defenceman for the Warriors.

Still, the memories were plentiful in Moose Jaw. Netminder Jackson Unger took over as the team’s starter in his third major junior campaign, and he grew into a star performer.

Star right-winger Atley Calvert, who has now exhausted his major junior eligibility, will be remembered as one of the best hometown products to ever play for the Warriors. Star centre Matthew Savoie came to the Warriors in a trade with the Wenatchee Wild and played to his billing as one of the WHL’s top players.

The Warriors third line of Schuurman, left-winger Ethan Semeniuk and right-winger Rilen Kovacevic became difference makers in the post-season.

Rysavy and defenceman Lucas Brenton took their final bows before exhausting their major junior ability. Offensive-defenceman Kalem Parker came in a trade early in the campaign with the Victoria Royals and formed a dynamic back end pairing with Mateychuk. 

Blue-liners Aiden Ziprick, import Vojtech Port and Cosmo Wilson added contributions at key moments.

Warriors fans enjoy their team’s WHL title win on May 15.

Head coach Mark O’Leary and general manager Jason Ripplinger did an outstanding job ensuring the Warriors were steered in the right direction.

For the Warriors faithful, they got a season they deserved. When the Warriors arrived in Moose Jaw at the start of the 1984-85 campaign after spending four seasons in Winnipeg, they only had four winning records in their first 16 seasons in Moose Jaw.

The small Saskatchewan city of 34,000 would always keep the faith in supporting their team. This past season, that elusive first WHL championship finally came.

Looking to the future, the folks in Moose Jaw can continue to keep dreaming big dreams for their Warriors. You have to have faith that one day that elusive first Memorial Cup title will come too.

WHL in its longest Memorial Cup drought ever, other notes

The QMJHL’s Acadie-Bathurst Titan enjoy a Memorial Cup win in 2018.

The WHL’s drought when it comes to winning the Memorial Cup just keeps growing and growing.

It is now the undisputed longest drought the circuit has ever had when it comes to capturing major junior hockey’s top prize that goes to the championship team of the CHL. The CHL is the umbrella the WHL, OHL and QMJHL major junior circuits play under.

On Friday at the Memorial Cup tournament being held at the DOW Event Center in Saginaw, Michigan, the WHL champion Moose Jaw Warriors were eliminated from the event with a 7-1 loss in the tournament’s semifinal game against the host Saginaw Spirit from the OHL. The Spirit advanced to play the OHL champion London Knights for the CHL title in the Memorial Cup championship game on Sunday (5:30 p.m. Saskatchewan time, TSN).

Moose Jaw’s elimination means the WHL has now gone eight straight Memorial Cup tournaments without being able to win the Memorial Cup. That stretch includes the tournaments played from 2015 to 2019, 2022, 2023 and 2024. The Memorial Cup tournament wasn’t contested in 2020 and 2021 due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

The WHL’s previous longest drought of not winning the Memorial Cup spanned seven seasons starting with the inaugural campaign the circuit came into existence in the 1966-67 campaign. That stretch included seasons when the WHL was ineligible to compete for the storied championship trophy.

In three of the first four seasons the WHL existed, the circuit wasn’t eligible to compete for the Memorial Cup as the circuit was originally viewed as an “outlaw league” by the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association that governed the game in Canada at that time.

The WHL’s winless run came to an end when the Regina Pats won storied trophy for the third time in team history to conclude the 1973-74 campaign. Clubs from the WHL became eligible to play for the Memorial Cup on a regular basis in the 1970-71 campaign.

The Edmonton Oil Kings are the last team from the WHL to win the Memorial Cup, and that victory came back in 2014. Edmonton captured the WHL and CHL titles that year playing to honour the memory of former player Kristians Pelss, who was with the Oil Kings 2012 WHL championship team and passed away in June of 2013 due to a recreation diving accident.

In the championship game of the 2014 Memorial Cup tournament played in London, Ont., on May 25 of that year, the WHL champion Oil Kings downed the OHL champion Guelph Storm 6-3. It has been 10 years since a WHL team last captured the Memorial Cup.

For the WHL as a league, maybe the “Curse of the Drop” still lingers.

For the superstitious types, that event took place on May 25, 2008 after the WHL champion Spokane Chiefs downed the host Kitchener Rangers 4-1 in the Memorial Cup tournament’s championship game. After receiving the trophy, Chiefs captain Chris Bruton had the Memorial Cup fall apart in his hands as he attempted to give it to veteran defenceman Trevor Glass.

Since that drop, the WHL has only won the Memorial Cup once coming with the Oil Kings win in 2014.

Next year, Rimouski, Quebec, will host the Memorial Cup tournament with the QMJHL’s Rimouski Oceanic taking the ice as the host squad. Will that be the time the WHL’s Memorial Cup comes to an end?

When it comes to winning the Memorial Cup, the WHL as a league has fallen into the habit of being in next year country.

• The QMJHL once went through a drought of 14 seasons of not winning the Memorial Cup as a league. In 1981, the Cornwall Royals won their second straight Memorial Cup playing out of the QMJHL. The next QMJHL club to win the Memorial Cup would be the Granby Predateurs in 1996.
• On Saturday, Medicine Hat Tigers left-winger Gavin McKenna captured the CHL Rookie of the Year award. Tigers centre Cayden Lindstrom was feted as the winner of the CHL Top Draft Prospect award. Defenceman Noah Chadwick of the Lethbridge Hurricanes claimed CHL Scholastic Player of the Year award.
• Moose Jaw Warriors captain Denton Mateychuk was up for the CHL’s Defenceman of the Year award. When the CHL handed out its major awards on Saturday, the Defenceman of the Year award went to Zayne Parekh of the OHL’s Saginaw Spirit.

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