Moose Jaw, SK – The Moose Jaw Warriors saw their season come to an end at the hands of the Winnipeg ICE for the second straight season.
A six-goal second period helped push Winnipeg past the Warriors, 8-2, in Game 6 of their second-round series on Monday night.
“Obviously tonight it’s not the way we wanted it to go, but, lots of guys should be really proud of the way they played all season in there,” Warriors assistant coach Scott King said.
Denton Mateychuk and Jagger Firkus scored in the loss for Moose Jaw, while Ryder Korczak finished with two assists in his final Western Hockey League game.
Firkus said the loss stings right now.
“It’s a tough way to go out, but we had a great season,” he said.
Firkus tied the Warriors’ franchise record for most points in a single playoffs with 21. He did it in four fewer games than Brayden Burke (2018) and 12 less than Blair Jones (2006).
The Warriors had a strong early push, but the ICE swung momentum in their favour with two goals only 51 seconds apart midway through the first period.
Zack Ostapchuk opened the scoring and then Vladislav Shilo followed it up with less than a minute later.
Moose Jaw didn’t get the start to the second they had hoped for as Connor McClennon scored 28 seconds in and then followed it up 1:52 later to make it 4-0.
Graham Sward and Conor Geekie would add to the ICE’s lead a few minutes later before Mateychuk scored a power-play goal midway through the second to get the Warriors on the board.
Geekie and Evan Friesen would add goals late in the second to make it 8-1 for Winnipeg after two.
The Warriors would capitalize on a late power play when Firkus ripped home his tenth of the playoffs.
“When it’s 2-0, we had a couple of good looks, we make it 2-1 there and it’s obviously a different game,” King said. “We were talking about not letting them get that third goal, but that didn’t happen that way, and for whatever reason we couldn’t get the goal.”
The Warriors will now head into the offseason and look to build towards another playoff push next season.