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Moose Jaw Warriors players swarm Brayden Yager after he scored his Game 1 overtime winner to put the Warriors up 1-0 over Saskatoon in their Eastern Conference final. Credit: Steve Hiscock/Saskatoon Blades

Yager overtime winner gives Warriors Game 1 victory over Blades

By Shane Clausing Apr 26, 2024 | 11:42 PM

Brayden Yager was the overtime hero on Friday night in Saskatoon for the Moose Jaw Warriors.

The Saskatoon native and Pittsburgh Penguins first-round pick received a nice pass from Jagger Firkus and ripped it top shelf past Evan Gardner to give his team a 4-3 overtime win.

“It felt great,” said Yager when asked how it felt to score an overtime winner not just for the Warriors, but in his hometown. “Our line wasn’t too happy with our game and overtime is kind of a reset button and to score in my hometown feels pretty good.”

“I liked the goal all around,” said Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary. “If you see the work on the wall by Marty (Martin Rysavy) – at the end of the day that’s what hockey is – it’s how fast can you get the puck from on the wall and into inside ice and Marty did a great job there. Firky (Jagger Firkus) supporting the puck and nice play into Yager and Yager does what he does.”

In order to have the opportunity to score in overtime, Yager and the Warriors had to battle from behind to beat the WHL’s best team.

Charlie Wright opened the scoring with his third of the playoffs 3:05 into the first period to give the Blades a 1-0 lead.

The Blades dominated the first period and carried that early into the second when Egor Sidorov put the Blades up 2-0.

With the Blades dominating, the Warriors quickly flipped the script as Brayden Schuurman scored just 12 seconds after the Sidorov goal to make it 2-1.

Atley Calvert followed Schuurman’s goal up six minutes later to tie the game at 2-2.

The Blades were reeling and the Warriors were thriving, so much so that Blades head coach Brennan Sonne had to call a timeout to help get his team back on the tracks.

He was able to do that and the teams remained at a stalemate until late in the third period.

With under five minutes to play, Matthew Savoie found the back of the net to give the Warriors their first lead of the game.

It might’ve appeared the Warriors were on their way to the win, but the Blades had other ideas as Sidorov netted his second of the night with 1:25 remaining to tie the game at 3-3.

It was with 7:26 when Yager scored his overtime winner to win the Warriors the game.

O’Leary credits his teams resiliency all season for helping get them the win.

“I just thought we did bounce back a little bit in the first period, but we were on our heels for most of the first. But again, it’s the players and their talk. If you listen to them talk it’s real – we’re never out of it because I know they’re staying positive and they stick with it,” O’Leary explained. “Once we got that first one I think energy went to our legs for sure.”

O’Leary felt it was huge for the Warriors to score so early in the second period and right after the Sidorov goal.

After the game, Blades head coach Brennan Sonne was short and sweet with his comments, but clearly wasn’t happy with how his team let Game 1 slip away.

“(There’s) nothing we can do about it now. What’s important next is recovery, nutrition, hydration,” said Sonne. “It’s not going to be easy, so let’s dig in. If you want to do something great, it’s going to be difficult.”

Sonne mentioned momentum swings is something his team prepared for heading into this series.

“I think we prepared a lot for momentum swings and I think we handled it OK,” he said. “After I called that timeout I thought it got much better.”

“It was a very back and forth game,” said Blades defenceman Charlie Wright. “The momentum swung for sure. There was a couple areas we need to clean up on, (but) I thought it was a good game. Not fun to lose, but nothing good is easy, so we need to learn what we need to learn and flip the page.”

Luckily for the Blades, they will have the chance to leave Saskatoon with a split as Game 2 takes place on Saturday night at SaskTel Centre.

Puck drop is set for 7 p.m.

 

 

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