Moose Jaw, SK – Brayden Schuurman blew the roof off the Hangar 2:20 into the first overtime period.
Schuurman batted home the winner to give the Moose Jaw Warriors a 4-3 win over the Portland Winterhawks in Game 3 of the 2024 WHL Championship Series, presented by Nutrien.
The win moves the Warriors just one win away from clinching the first Ed Chynoweth Cup in franchise history.
“They came out strong tonight and I don’t think we shied away at all, that was a solid effort, puck wasn’t always in our favour, but we found a way to get it done,” Warriors captain Denton Mateychuk said after the win.
Mateychuk scored twice for the Warriors in the second period as they overcame a 2-1 deficit after one to take a 3-2 lead into the third period.
Portland’s Marcus Nguyen found the back of the net just 3:56 into the third to tie the game and send the Warriors to their eighth overtime period of the playoffs.
Moose Jaw made sure it ended quickly and the home crowd went home happy when Schuurman scored his sixth of the playoffs just over two minutes into the extra frame.
“It was a quick transition with my line, [Ethan] Semeniuk brought it in down that right side, made a nice play in the middle to [Rilen Kovacevic] and he got a quick shot on net and I happened to bat it out of the air and it went in the net, it was a pretty good feeling,” Schuurman said after the win.
The Winterhawks started the game strong, but it was the Warriors who opened the scoring for the third straight with Lucas Brenton scoring his second of the playoffs just 4:22 into the game.
Portland fought back with goals from Tyson Yaremko and Nate Danielson less than two minutes apart to take a 2-1 lead after one.
“For the most part again, we kept things to the outside, but tomorrow will be much better just in terms of getting back to checking hard, being around the puck with numbers, but gutsy performance to find a way to win,” Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary said.
Jackson Unger made 30 saves in the victory, while Jan Spunar turned away 32 shots in the loss.
Moose Jaw now sits on the verge of history heading into Game 4 on Wednesday as they can clinch the first WHL Championship in the organization’s history.
O’Leary said his message to the team will be to stay present.
“Don’t get too far ahead of ourselves, we know it’s the hardest one to win, we know who we’re playing, it’s a heck of a hockey team over there and they’re not going away, so we’ll get their best effort and just the same mindset we always have, make sure they see ours,” he said.
Mateychuk echoed those statements as the team looks to do something that hasn’t been done before in Moose Jaw.
“It’s a good feeling, the mindset doesn’t really change, whether it’s game one of the regular season or it’s game four of the finals, just got to keep that same mentality and go out there and get the job done,” he said.
The Warriors will host the Winterhawks at a sold-out Moose Jaw Events Centre for Game 4 on Wednesday night. Puck drops at 8 p.m.