Warriors coach rolls another lucky seven
Tim Hunter has celebrated MOOSE JAW lucky sevens at various junctures in a long and successful hockey career.
His team rolled a seven once again in the opening round of the 2018 WHL playoffs as the Moose Jaw Warriors and Prince Albert Raiders went the distance.
Coach Hunter’s Warriors won Game 7 on Tuesday before a standing-room-only crowd of 4,702 at Mosaic Place, outlasting the Raiders 5-4 to win the Eastern Conference quarter-final.
“I told my coaches after the game that three times I went to the Stanley Cup as a player, and all (of the) first-round series went to seven games,” said Hunter, who went to the Stanley Cup final with the Calgary Flames (1986 and ’89) and with the Vancouver Canucks (1994).
“That makes you better. It makes you resilient. It shows your character. There is a lot that goes on in a seven-game series and this game was not unlike that.”
On Tuesday, the Warriors overcame deficits of 2-0 and 3-2, killed off a Raiders two-man advantage for 1:13 in the third period, and survived a penalty shot.
The Warriors also gave up a late short-handed goal but subsequently scored on the same power play. Brayden Burke’s goal snapped a 4-4 tie with 3:50 remaining.
“There was everything in this series,” Hunter observed.
Moose Jaw finished first overall in the WHL with 109 points, on the strength of a franchise-record 52 victories.
Prince Albert had 32 fewer regular-season points than the Warriors but still threw a scare into the CHL’s second-ranked team.
“Our guys battled and never quit,” Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid said. “That’s what it is to be a Raider.”
The Warriors will now host the Swift Current Broncos on Friday at 7 p.m. in Game 1 of an Eastern Conference semifinal.