Marc Smith/MJ Warriors

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.

Brandon, MB – The Moose Jaw Warriors couldn’t keep the momentum going for 60 minutes on Thursday night.

After a strong first period, the Warriors ended up falling 5-3 to the Brandon Wheat Kings at Westoba Place in their final road game of the regular season.

“It was a really good first period, if we would have continued like that, we would have won the game for sure, in the second period, we were just watching them play,” Warriors associate coach Scott King said.

Regina, SK – The Moose Jaw Warriors finished off a busy weekend with another key two points on Sunday in Regina.

The Warriors knocked off the Pats, 6-3, at the Brandt Centre and in the process locked up home ice advantage in the first two rounds of the WHL Playoffs.

“It’s a big win for us and we’re feeling good going into next weekend,” Warriors forward Brayden Yager said after the win.

Moose Jaw, SK – The Moose Jaw Warriors delivered a massive counter-punch to the Saskatoon Blades in the second half of their weekend home-and-home series.

Down 3-0 after one, the Warriors scored six unanswered goals to knock off the Blades, 6-3, at the Moose Jaw Events Centre on Saturday night.

“Lears came in and said, ‘We know we can score goals, that’s not the issue that we’re down three goals, it whether we’re willing to work to get the goals back’,” Warriors forward Jagger Firkus said.

Saskatoon, SK – For two periods, the Moose Jaw Warriors were a step ahead of the Saskatoon Blades, but the script flipped in the third period.

Saskatoon scored three times in the final frame to skate to a 6-3 win over Moose Jaw on Friday night at SaskTel Centre.

“I thought we played hard for 40 minutes, there was mistakes but overall we didn’t give up and we played hard and then in the third, we just came out flat, they get one early and we took a backseat,” Warriors captain Denton Mateychuk said.

“You live and you learn from that.”