Warriors turn in impressive showing on way to shutout win over Blades
Tetachuk records second shutout, Mateychuk has goal and four points in 7-0 win at Mosaic Place
For the majority of the season, the Saskatoon Blades just seemed to have the Moose Jaw Warriors’ number.
Heading into Saturday night’s Western Hockey League contest at Mosaic Place, the Blades had taken five of six meetings between the two clubs, including a 4-2 battle in their most recent meeting back on Feb. 27.
One night after officially clinching a playoff spot thanks to Prince Albert and Regina losses, the Warriors turned in a solid showing from start to finish on their way to a 7-0 victory at Mosaic Place.
“I just really liked our game tonight,” said Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary. “There’s no secret how our record has been against them and it was important for us to have a game like this. We just played the right way, we played hard and we played honest and when there were breakdowns, our goaltender was there and he was the best player on the ice.”
Carl Tetachuk finished the game with 31 saves, and it wasn’t one of those relatively relaxing nights. No, the overage netminder made impressive save after impressive save throughout the contest and was a major factor in how things turned out.
“I think that it instills confidence in the group when you look out there and you know that you have a goalie behind you that can make that save in a big moment,” O’Leary said. “I think it allows you to just play your game and I think we played like that. We played hard, we played heavy, but we played free tonight and we let our skill level take over.”
Ryder Korczak scored in the first period and Lucas Brenton made it 2-0 in second before the Warriors broke things open in the final frame.
Jagger Firkus scored twice — giving him a team-leading 35 goals on the season — to go along with single markers from Brayden Yager, Eric Alarie and Denton Mateychuk.
Mateychuk also had three assists, giving him a goal and 10 points in his last two games. Alarie also had a pair of helpers.
The Warriors had 40 shots on Maier.
Moose Jaw improved to 35-31-3-2 with the win, moving three points up on 34-23-3-1 Saskatoon for fourth place in the conference and home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs.
That the Warriors will return to the postseason — technically their fifthstraight appearance after there were no playoffs the last two seasons — is a heartening step forward for the local crew after two tough campaigns.
“It’s really nice,” O’Leary said. “We’ve always been optimistic and excited about the group that we’re building and I think it’s good for Moose Jaw fans. They’ve been patient when we took it on the chin and even last year when we went all-in on development. That’s helping out right now, guys like Mateychuk, Firkus and Yager got that experience last year and now to be in the playoffs, I think there’s a bit of a buzz around town right now you
can feel it here in the building. It’d be a lot of fun.”
The Warriors began gearing up for the most important games of the season on Tuesday, Mar. 22 in Winnipeg against the East Division champion Ice. Scoring info was unavailable as of press time.
“We have seven games left, and we’re treating it like a seven-game series,” O’Leary said. “We’re starting game one Tuesday night in Winnipeg on the road and we just want to play playoff hockey. Nothing changes, regardless of who we’re playing. But it’s a seven-game series right now and we need to win four of them.”
The Warriors play their final home game of the regular season on Saturday, Apr. 2 at Mosaic Place against the Winnipeg Ice. Be sure to get to the game early as the team’s year-end awards will be presented prior to the contest. Puck drop is 7 p.m.