Warriors beat Blades to open WHL playoff series with back-to-back wins

The Moose Jaw Warriors used home ice to begin their first-round WHL playoff series against the Saskatoon Blades with two wins.

Moose Jaw notched a 5-3 victory on Saturday at Mosaic Place. The Warriors won the opening contest of the best-of-seven series on Friday with a 5-1 decision.

“I think that was the goal going in — win the first one and then win the second one,” Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary said.

“I think the second game wasn’t quite as clean as the first one, but at the same time I think it’s good for our group to go through different situations and it’s always fun to learn when you come out on top.”

The Warriors kept the pressure on the Blades for most of the first period Saturday, outshooting them 15-8.

A solid outing from Blades goaltender Nolan Maier — who was pulled in the third period of Friday’s loss — kept the Warriors off the board despite three Saskatoon penalties in the frame.

“He’s unreal. He’s one of the best goalies to ever play in the league. He’s our backbone back there. He made some huge saves in the first to keep us in it, so we’re going to try and get these next two for him,” said Saskatoon’s Brandon Lisowsky, who had two goals in the game.

Thanks to a bit of puck luck in the second period, Moose Jaw finally found a way to beat the 21-year-old goaltender.

While the Warriors were shorthanded, Brayden Yager came down on the rush and put the puck on net. Maier made the initial save, but the puck went into the slot and bounced off the skate of Saskatoon’s Trevor Wong and into the net.

It was Yager’s first career playoff goal.

“That definitely (wasn’t how I drew it up), but I’ll take it though,” Yager said. “It wasn’t pretty but it felt real good.”

Later in the second, Saskatoon answered, with Lisowsky beating Warriors goaltender Carl Tetachuk. Then, 1:53 later, Saskatoon took its first lead of the series on a goal from Vaughn Watterodt.

But that lead would be shortlived, with Yager beating Maier just over two minutes later, this time without any help from an opposing player’s skate.

“I honestly thought I didn’t score. I thought (someone else) tipped it in, but it was nice it went in,” said Yager, who also had an assist in the game.

It’s the 17-year-old’s first taste of WHL playoff action; his first season was played in the bubble in Regina in 2020.

“It’s not surprising (Yager is scoring in the playoffs),” O’Leary said. “He’s competitive. I think that’s the biggest thing that stands out.

“We can talk about his speed, his shot, the hockey sense and the pure skill he has, but for me it comes down to his competitive edge and you can’t teach that. When you put that with the skill level he has, you have nights like this.”

With just 4.6 seconds left in the period, Moose Jaw regained the lead with a blast from Lucas Brenton, who was celebrating his 19th birthday Saturday.

The Warriors extended their lead in the third with a scramble in front of the Blades’ net leading to another Warriors goal, this one from Riley Niven.

The Blades scored one with their net empty, with Lisowsky scoring his second of the game with 45 seconds left in the game.

But Moose Jaw’s Calder Anderson hit the empty net 23 seconds later to complete the scoring.

“I thought it was an improvement from last game. I thought we played north more than south and I thought we moved the puck quicker. I thought we had more good to our game but it didn’t go our way,” Lisowsky said.

“We have not got to where we want to be. We haven’t played our best yet but we played much harder tonight and tonight the difference was little plays — a missed assignment here, a missed block here and that was the difference tonight,” Blades head coach Brennan Sonne said. “We played harder. We’re not us yet. We’re not to the level we need to be yet.”

Game 3 of the series is to take place in Saskatoon on Tuesday.

“We’re going to learn and we’re going to reset and it’s always fun playing at home, especially in the playoffs,” Lisowsky said.