By Matthew Gourlie
The Moose Jaw Warriors won their first Scotty Munro Memorial Trophy this season as owners of the WHL’s best regular season record.
Friday the Warriors will begin their chase for a bigger first for the franchise.
Moose Jaw entered the season feeling this might be the team to end their WHL title drought. A team record 52-15-2-3 record during the regular season did nothing to dissuade those dreams.
The Warriors will have a daunting path to the lifting the Ed Chynoweth Cup which begins with a tough first-round series against the Prince Albert Raiders (32-27-9-4).
“We’re really excited to get things going Friday,” said Warriors captain Brett Howden. “I think we’ve played our best in the big, important games and every game is important now from here on out.”
They may be the eighth seed, but the Raiders had the second-best record against the Warriors in the Eastern Conference. Prince Albert was 3-4-0-1 in their eight meetings. Though the Warriors took 11 out of a possible 16 points against the Raiders, Prince Albert did win three straight meetings before the Warriors ended the Raiders’ nine-game winning streak on Mar. 13 with a shootout win.
Raiders captain Curtis Miske said that the secret to beating the Warriors in three straight was “not giving them too much credit.”
“Yeah they’re a good team, but we’re a good team too,” Miske said. “If we can go on a nine-game win streak, if we can beat them three times in a row…. any team can beat any other team. We have that belief factor and that positive energy.”
To the surprise of many, the Raiders added players at the deadline, acquiring some key pieces from three Western Conference teams. Kody McDonald finished with 34 goals and Regan Nagy chipped in with 25 goals this season. Sergei Sapego quarterbacks their power play and Jeremy Masella is a top-four defenceman.
“Picking up Nagy and McDonald — those are two well-known guys in the league — and I think that added just a little more of that belief factor and created more positivity and a little more scoring. We needed that,” Miske said. “Once we found out that we could score and beat these good teams it kind of turned around for us.”
The Raiders were seven points behind Saskatoon at the trade deadline, but posted a 17-9-3-2 record after Jan. 10 to pass the Blades and clinch a playoff spot.
“It’s easiest to play when you’re in the underdog role and no one expects anything from you,” Miske said.
For their part, the Warriors are expecting a battle from a gritty Raiders team.
“They work hard. They’re physical, but I think if we out-work them and move our feet around their D, I think our skill can take over from there,” said Warriors defenceman Kale Clague.
The Warriors are the last team that the Raiders have played in the playoffs, losing to Moose Jaw in five games in the opening round of the 2016 playoffs. The Raiders haven’t won a playoff series since 2005.
Clague has a world junior gold medal, a WHL title and another trip to the finals during his tenure with the Brandon Wheat Kings.
The Warriors have been consistent game-to-game this season, but have struggled at times to put together three consistently good periods every night. That wasn’t an issue when they effectively locked up first place in the East Division with an impressive 4-2 win over Swift Current.
“We’re going to have be playing full-60s every single game the rest of the way. That’s what championship teams do to win and that’s what we’ll need to do,” said Clague, the Eastern Conference nominee for top defenceman. “I’ve done it before — I’ve been to the finals twice — so hopefully I can share some of my experience.”
The Warriors were stung by injuries down the stretch, but are looking to be close to having all hands on deck for Game 1. Clague and fellow defenceman Dmitri Zaitsev have been full participants at practice and are expected to return in Game 1. Brayden Burke, fourth in league scoring with 113 points, is also expected to be back after missing the last seven games of the regular season.
“It’s always nice to have some days off here before the playoffs to regroup mentally and physically,” Clague said. “We’ve had a couple of good days of practice to get us where we want to be and we’re going to be coming out of the gates flying.”
Warriors defenceman Brandon Schuldhaus — a sensational deadline acquisition from Red Deer (eight goals and a plus-20 in 27 games) — is trending in the right direction, while gritty winger Tristin Langan, who was injured a week ago, is also listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.
The Warriors boast the deepest defence corps in the WHL and two terrific lines that feature two players that had more than 100 points: 70-goal scorer and scoring champion Jayden Halbgewachs and Burke. In addition, Justin Almeida and Tanner Jeannot each hit the 40-goal mark and Howden who had 75 points in 49 games.
The Warriors boast the second-best power play (26.3%) in the WHL, but the Raiders have the second-best penalty kill (81.4%). While that will be a key match-up, the Raiders will need some production from their power play (19.1%) which was 18th in the league. The Warriors’ kill was eighth in the league (78.4%).
The Raiders are led by Jordy Stallard who had 44 goals and 91 points in 72 games. They boast size, speed and skill in their top-six forwards and Brett Leason missed the final six games due to injury, but otherwise the Raiders enter the playoffs healthy. Leason and Miske are both six-foot-four, while Stallard and McDonald also have some size for the Warriors defence to contend with.
Warriors goalie Brody Willms (3.00 GAA; .898 save percentage) and Raiders goalie Ian Scott (3.10 GAA; .897 save percentage) have comparable numbers heading into the playoffs and both have less than a game of playoff experience.
-Banner photos from Dayna Fjord and Andy Devlin.
