MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- When the Moose Jaw Warriors and Saskatoon Blades prepared to do battle in the Western Hockey League Eastern Conference Final a couple of weeks ago, there was a sense the two teams could be in for a close and competitive series.
No one could have predicted just how close and how competitive things would be.
Five of the six games have gone to overtime, including Game 6 on Sunday afternoon at the Moose Jaw Events Centre which saw the Warriors get the winner from Lynden Lakovic to force a seventh and deciding game in the series.
That contest takes place on Tuesday night at SaskTel Centre in Saskatoon, and how things will go there is anyone’s guess.
“It just goes to show you what playoff hockey is all about,” Lakovic said. “It’s back and forth, this is the fifth game that’s gone to overtime and it shows anything can happen. In a game like that, you just have to throw it on net and hope something happens and tonight it did.”
The lead-up to extra time was another back-and-forth battle, with Saskatoon twice battling back to tie the game before taking a lead early in the third. Rilen Kovacevic would then tie the game midway through the third period, setting the stage for Lakovic’s winner.
It was a stellar outing in general for the Warriors' third line, as Brayden Schuurman scored only 38 seconds in and had a pair of goals, while Kovacevic added a pair of assists and Ethan Semeniuk also had a helper.
“I think that really shows how deep our line-up is,” said Schuurman. “We have guys who can score and come up big in big moments up and down our line-up and today it just happened to be us. It was really good.”
The contest also marked the latest example of the Warriors rebounding from a tough loss, something they’ve done many a time this season. Seeing that continue to happen isn’t much of a surprise to Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary
“You train for that, and we’ve talked for a long time about this group growing up together,” he said. “I think when you know a group of guys and you go through hard times at 16- and 17-years-old when you’re a young and developing team and you lose games by seven or eight goals some nights, you make the decision back then that you’re either going to quit or keep going. Our guys made the decision a long time ago to keep going and it’s like anything else, it’s a habit and when tough circumstances happen the standards don’t change.”
Lakovic was of much the same opinion.
“I think we’re a family,” he said. “This group has been building together since they were all 16 and we don’t want this road to end, so we just do it for each other… we don’t want this to end, we aren’t going to change much and we’re going to play for each other.”
Now, all eyes turn to the biggest game of the season.
Blades defenceman Charlie Wright -- who scored the go-ahead goal for Saskatoon in Game 6 -- was asked if it felt like destiny to be going to Game 7.
“To be honest, it did,” he said. “We were hoping to end it tonight, but things happen and it did feel like it was destined to go to seven. (And) It’s probably going to go into overtime, looking at the other games here. It’s going to be exciting, it’s a Game 7, they’re always intense and it should be a good game.”
Seeing how things have gone for the two teams throughout the playoffs, having a winner-take-all showdown seems like a fitting finish for one of the closest series in recent WHL history.
“It’s one game, there’s nothing you need to say to get the players excited and energized for it,” O’Leary said. “Both teams have played the same amount of games through the playoffs, everyone is tired and sore, and you just need to bring your very best game for one game and lay it out there with the prize being a chance to play in the Final.
“That’s special and this team deserves it.”
