Marc Smith/MJ Warriors

The Moose Jaw Warriors are off to the second round of the 2024 Western Hockey League Playoffs.

The Warriors finished off a four-game sweep of the Brandon Wheat Kings on Thursday night with a 6-2 win at Westoba Place.

“We stuck with our identity and scored a lot of goals, we didn’t play full 60s at times, but in a game like this, it was big that we played a full 60,” Warriors forward Lynden Lakovic said. “There was times of ups and downs but that’s just playoffs.”

Jagger Firkus has added the East Division Player of the Year honours to his award haul for the 2023-24 season.

The Moose Jaw Warriors forward was named the division’s nominee for the Four Broncos Memorial Trophy on Thursday.

Firkus led the entire Canadian Hockey League with 126 points, winning the WHL’s Bob Clarke Trophy as the top scorer.

He set a career-high with 61 goals and 65 assists during the regular season.

For the second time in three years, Denton Mateychuk has been named the East Division’s Defenceman of the Year by the Western Hockey League.

The Moose Jaw Warriors defenceman was named a nominee for the WHL’s Bill Hunter Memorial Trophy on Thursday.

Mateychuk had a record-setting season in 2023-24 as he broke the Warriors’ franchise record for points by a defenceman with 215 career points.

The Columbus Blue Jackets prospect set a career-high with 17 goals, 58 assists and 75 points in a career-low 52 games.

Brandon, MB – The Moose Jaw Warriors withstood an early and late push from the Brandon Wheat Kings to come away with a big win at Westoba Place.

The Warriors topped the Wheat Kings, 6-4, in Game 3 on Wednesday night to take a 3-0 stranglehold in their best-of-seven first-round series.

“It was a really important win, just to be in control of the series and being able to come back in this barn and hopefully finish it off,” Warriors forward Owen Berge said.

Jason Ripplinger has been named the East Division Executive of the Year on Wednesday by the Western Hockey League.

The Moose Jaw Warriors general manager will now be up for the Lloyd Saunders Memorial Trophy for WHL Executive of the Year for the first time in his career.

Ripplinger helped build the Warriors’ squad, which finished with the second-best record in the Eastern Conference, posting a 44-21-0-3 record.

Brayden Yager has defended his title as the East Division’s Most Sportsmanlike Player.

The Moose Jaw Warriors forward was named a finalist for the Western Hockey League’s Brad Hornung Memorial Trophy on Tuesday.

This is the second straight season that Yager has been up for the honour after winning the WHL and Canadian Hockey League Most Sportsmanlike Player awards in 2022-23.

Yager posted a career-high 35 goals, 60 assists and 95 points in 57 games during the 2023-24 regular season, while also having only 20 penalty minutes.

The Moose Jaw Warriors put together a gutsy effort to come away with a win in Game 2 on Saturday night.

The Warriors came back from down 4-2 in the second period to win 5-4 in overtime over the Brandon Wheat Kings, taking a 2-0 lead in their first round series.

“We were just trying to stay positive, we’ve been in bigger deficits before, we’re known for scoring a lot of goals, so being down two I don’t think fazed us and it was key to just stick together,” Lynden Lakovic, the overtime hero, said after the game.

The Moose Jaw Warriors came out of the gates firing on all cylinders to open the Western Hockey League playoffs on Friday night.

Martin Rysavy and Brayden Schuurman had two goals each as the Warriors topped the Brandon Wheat Kings, 7-4, in Game 1 of their best-of-seven first round series.

“We had a decent start to the playoffs, we know what we can clear up, so now it’s only the job to move on and clear the table and go to tomorrow,” Rysavy said on the series opening win.

Moose Jaw Warriors alternate captain Jagger Firkus has been named Tempo WHL Player of the Week for the week ending March 24, 2024, the Western Hockey League announced Monday.

This marks the third time Firkus has earned the weekly award.

The Seattle Kraken prospect led all WHL skaters with five goals plus three assists in two games to capture the Bob Clarke Trophy for the top regular-season scorer.

Moose Jaw, SK – The Moose Jaw Warriors went into Saturday’s regular season finale focused on building momentum heading into the playoffs and they did just that in dominating fashion.

The Warriors cruised to an 11-1 over the rival Regina Pats to close out the 2023-24 regular season in front of over 4,700 people at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.

“[Head Coach Mark O’Leary] said in the room that he wanted to see how we would be in game one of the playoffs, so treat it like that tonight and we did a really good job of that,” Warriors forward Jagger Firkus said.