Broncos and Warriors set for heavyweight clash

The Swift Current Broncos and Moose Jaw Warriors are set for another second round meeting in the Western Hockey League playoffs.

The regular season series couldn’t have been much closer with each team winning three games in regulation and scoring exactly 24 goals along the way.

“I just feel like we work harder than them,” said Broncos defenseman Grayson Burzynski. “I feel like overall we’re just going to want it more. They have some guys up front that are pretty skilled and can do some damage, but I really like the way our back end looks and obviously with Reid [Dyck] in net, he’ll be a big part of the series. I kind of like our overall team better than theirs and our willingness to want it more is going to show.”

The Warriors led the WHL regular season at 32.4 percent on the power play.

“You have to be very disciplined playing against them,” cautioned Interim Head Coach Taras Mcewen. “I think five-on-five they’re a team that is very dangerous off the rush. They like to get their D up and involved in the offence… We just want to make sure that we have numbers back that we’re good in the neutral zone. We want to be able to create turnovers and transition on them.”

“I think just staying out of the penalty box, that’s their biggest threat,” added forward Clarke Caswell. “When we played them that’s what caught us, so I think if we do that we’ll have a really good chance at beating them five-on-five and dominating them in that area.”

The Warriors are led by Jagger Firkus, who topped the WHL with 126 points. Atley Calvert was also a 47-goal man, Denton Mateychuk was third amongst WHL defensemen with 75 points in 52 games, and trade acquisition Matthew Savoie totaled 71 points in only 34 games.

“They have some very high end skilled forwards,” said Mcewen. “So five-on-five we want to make sure that we’re defending and doing a real good job in that area. At times they can push for offence, which opens up some turnovers or odd man rushes going the other way. I think we just have to do a real good job of managing the game and the puck when they’re on the ice and taking advantage of some of the mistakes they make.”

Mcewen doesn’t expect to get caught up trying to play strict matchups against the Warriors.

“I think the greatest strength of our team is our depth. I think we match up very well one through four. We’ll see how they want to play, but for me I’m not overly worried about the matchups, more so off of the timeouts, face-offs, where you are in the game and getting different lines out. If one of our lines get caught out against the first or second line it’s not something where I want to get a quick change.”

The series is filled with tantalizing storylines aside from the teams’ recent playoff rivalry and short commute down the Trans-canada Highway. WHL fans are focusing on the impending clash between longtime Winnipeg Ice and Wenatchee Wild teammates Conor Geekie and Savoie, who were both January trade acquisitions after representing Canada at the World Junior Hockey Championship. Star defensemen Owen Pickering and Denton Mateychuk are second cousins and first-round NHL draft picks in 2022.

Caswell has his own former teammate suiting up for the Warriors.

“Yeah I played two years with Lynden Lakovic, he used to be a buddy of mine. It’s always fun playing against him. He’s a great player. I always look forward to that.”

Burzynski, who hails from Winnipeg, will renew acquaintances with Russell, MB’S Aiden Ziprick.

“He’s in the same agency as me. We’ve played with and against each other for our whole lives. He’s from the country area, so I haven’t spent as much time with him, but I’ve gotten to know him over the past few years. He’s a guy I’m looking to knock out [of the playoffs],” Burzynski said.

The Broncos have been enjoying the playoff atmosphere at the sold out Innovationplex so far.

“It’s so much fun,” said Burzynski. “I obviously didn’t play in game one, but just the energy in the rink and around Swift Current is pretty crazy. It’s nothing like I’ve ever seen before. Even, I’m from Winnipeg, so going to the white out and stuff, that’s pretty crazy, but there’s nothing like a smaller rink like this getting going. It’s pretty cool.”

“It’s awesome,” added Caswell. “I’ve heard a lot of stuff before going in and it didn’t disappoint at all. It was amazing. It helped our energy throughout the games. We’re really looking forward to it in round two.”

The best-of-seven series will open in Moose Jaw on Friday and Saturday and then shift back to Swift Current on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Players and fans alike are ready for another playoff series against the rival Warriors.

“Yeah I think especially with bringing Geekie in, he wants to beat them as bad as everyone else, especially with him having played with Savoie for his whole career as well,” said Burzynski. “I think he’ll want it and I think everyone else wants it just as bad. I think they’ve kind of been a cocky group the whole year and thinking they’re just going to win. I think we all just want to destroy them.”