Given their proximity, it has always been surprising that there hasn’t been more of a rivalry between the Moose Jaw Warriors and Swift Current Broncos.
Sure there’s plenty of division-rival animosity, but neither team would consider the other their main foe. That may change starting Friday.
One of the reasons has been the surprising lack of playoff history. The last time the Broncos and Warriors met in the playoffs was 1999.
Moose Jaw’s Jaimen Yakubowski added a little heat to the rivalry two years ago when he scored a last-second winner in the Credit Union iPlex and skated to centre ice and stopped on the Broncos’ logo to celebrate.
That kept things heated through the 2014-15 season, but there hasn’t been much carry over and the teams only met six times this season. However, with the potential to play nine straight games against each other, the dormant rivalry could really kick into high gear.
Both teams spent much of the season in the shadow of the high-flying Regina Pats. The Warriors started to get some well-deserved respect after nine straight wins late in the season, but then dropped five straight games before beating the Broncos 10-5 to close out the regular season.
“I think in the last couple of games we were playing hard and playing to our capabilities. We had a few unlucky bounces and unlucky breaks. We’ve been sticking to it and it’s paying off,” said Warriors captain Brett Howden after the win. “We didn’t want to back into the playoffs. We wanted to go in feeling good about ourselves and we did a great job of accomplishing that.”
For their part the Broncos won nine of their final 12 games and posted their best record since 2007-08. That run was overshadowed by the Warriors’ winning streak and the Pats’ eight-game winning run to close out the regular season.
“This whole year pretty much everybody had us counted out and we’re just trying to prove everybody wrong,” said Broncos captain Glenn Gawdin. “Underdog or not I think that the series is going to be a tight one and I think we match-up well.”
Both Gawdin and 50-goal scorer Tyler Steenbergen feel that the Broncos’ physical style is going to be an important component of their playoff success.
“I think we are more of a playoff-style team. We are more rugged. I think we are going to need to hit them and make them cough up the puck a lot and get on their defence. Hopefully that will allow us to get ahead in the series and win it,” said Steenbergen who will also be relied upon to provide some offence for the Broncos.
“We think we match up pretty well with them. We know they are pretty top-heavy with their top two lines and so are we. I think that’s going to be a battle in itself. It might be decided by our depth and out third line has been rolling along pretty well for us lately. They’re going to have a good match up with their third line as well.”
The Warriors’ potent offence had gone cold during their five-game losing streak, only managing seven goals in five games.
In the season finale, Jayden Halbgewachs scored four goals to get to 50 on the season and finished with seven points to break the 100-point plateau. The Warriors offence explosion came against Broncos’ affiliate goalie Bailey Brkin, but the Warriors will take the confidence boost into the playoffs with them.
“We had a shooting mentality. Before we were a little too much around the perimeter and making too many passes and we weren’t attacking the net. We shot pucks and even if they didn’t go in we were picking up the rebounds,” Howden said.
Howden, Halbgewachs and Tanner Jeannot proved to be a potent second line in a playoffs last year. The trio were reunited against the Broncos and combined for 14 points on the night.
“The lines have been a little mixed up here and there. There have been injuries and other factors and we’ve been trying to find a combination,” said Howden. “It didn’t matter who you were playing with, everybody was working hard and that’s all that matters.”
Everybody involved knew the 10-5 game was an anomaly given the handful of veterans out of the lineup on each side, but Swift Current head coach/director of player personnel Emanuel Viveiros also acknowledged the potential potency of the Warriors offence.
“They’re good. We have a lot of respect for Moose Jaw. They’re a good hockey team. We have to keep it close against these guys because they have a lot of firepower. We don’t want to get into a shootout,” Viveiros said.
|
Swift Current |
vs. |
Moose Jaw |
|
2-4 |
Record |
4-2 |
|
18 |
Goals For |
24 |
|
24 |
Goals Against |
18 |
|
184 |
Shots For |
215 |
|
215 |
Shots Against |
184 |
|
5 for 20 (25.0%) |
PP |
4 for 18 (22.2%) |
|
14 of 18 (77.8%) |
PK |
15 of 20 (75.0%) |
|
3 |
Fights |
3 |
NHL Drafted/Signed Players:
Moose Jaw: Brett Howden (TB ’16), Noah Gregor (SJ ’16), Dmitri Zaitsev (WAS ’16).
Swift Current: Glenn Gawdin (STL ’15), Max Lajoie (OTT ’16), Lane Pederson (ARI FA), Colby Sissons (NJ FA).
Keys to Victory:
Swift Current will want to keep the games tight-checking and keep the score down. They have WHL title-winning experience in goal from Jordan Papirny and will need him to be a difference-maker despite having gone three weeks without game action.
The Broncos’ defensive core of Max Lajoie, Colby Sissons, Artyom Minulin and Sahvan Khaira will need to do a job against the potent Warriors forwards.
Both teams have a strong group of top-six forwards, but the Warriors’ new-found depth up front was a key factor in their nine-game winning streak. The additions of Thomas Foster, Spencer Bast, Justin Almeida, Jan Khomenko and Branden Klatt have made a big difference and taken some of the pressure off the bigger names to produce every night.
Papirny and Warriors starting goalie Zach Sawchenko are both capable of stealing a game. In what is expected to be a long, tight series, that could be a deciding factor as well.
The Warriors were the second-least penalized team in the league and they will want to keep up their disciplinary record, particularly in the cozy confines of the iPlex.
Injuries:
Moose Jaw: The Warriors were without D Josh Brook, RW Spencer Bast and LW Jaxan Kaluski for the final week of the season. After missing the previous 10 games, Bast is expected to be back for Game 1 of the series, while Brook is also expected to be in the lineup after sitting out the final two games.
Kaluski remains sidelined after having ankle surgery in November.
Swift Current: Overage goalie Jordan Papirny has not made a start since Mar. 7, but Viveiros said he would be available for Game 1. He and defenceman Colby Sissons were both cleared to practice on Monday. Sissons had missed the Broncos’ final five games of the regular season.
The Broncos were also without D Max Lajoie, C Kaden Elder, LW Kole Gable and C Lane Pederson on the final weekend. That quartet is expected to all be available for Game 1. Gable had missed 10 straight games.
The only Broncos who is definitely out for the start of the series is 20-year-old LW Ryan Graham who has been out of the lineup since Jan. 22.
Pick:
Moose Jaw’s depth proves to be enough to win in six (4-2)
