MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- Throughout the Western Hockey League playoffs, the Moose Jaw Warriors have put a lot of stock into how they start games.
The result has been a mixed bag right from Game 1 of the postseason against Brandon, and more often than not, the Warriors have seen the opposition get on the board first.
And while that was once again the case on Tuesday night in Game 3 of the WHL Eastern Conference final against the Saskatoon Blades at a sold-out Moose Jaw Events Centre, it wasn’t because of a lack of solid hockey from the Warriors in the early going.
No, Moose Jaw had the vast majority of chances and zone time in the first half of the game while limiting the Blades’ opportunities at the same time. And when things did get tough in the third period, goaltender Jackson Unger was there to keep things shut down.
It all resulted in a 3-1 Moose Jaw win and a two-games-to-one lead in the best-of-seven series.
“I was real pleased with our start,” said Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary. “Any time we’re talking about a start, it’s nothing to do with the goals for or goals against, it’s about playing the right way and trying to sustain it and I thought tonight was a good example of that. We were playing with energy and enthusiasm and structure and we get scored on first, but we had enough confidence that we were playing the right way and we just needed to stick with it.”
Grayden Siepmann scored his first goal of the season midway through the period, but Atley Calvert would get that one back early in the second and Martin Rysavy potted the game-winner with 7:14 gone in the third.
It was a bit of poetic justice for the Columbus Blue Jackets prospect after he had a ton of chances to score early in Game 2 but just couldn’t find the finishing touch.
“I was frustrated after the second game in Saskatoon, I had so many chances to score,” Rysavy admitted. “I had a crossbar and an empty net there in the first, so tonight, it was ‘if I get a rebound, I’m just going to slap it as hard as I can into the net’ because I didn’t want to miss anymore.
“It was an important goal, it’s a relief after the last game, but in the end, it’s not a big deal. This series is not done yet and we have a lot of work to do.”
As well as things went for the Warriors through two -- Moose Jaw held Saskatoon to only 11 shots through the first half of the game -- it was the Blades who came on in the third.
And as he’s done much of the playoffs, Warriors goaltender Jackson Unger came through with flying colours. All told, he’d make 16 saves in the final frame, including a miraculous diving glove save on Charlie Wright late in the period as Saskatoon pressed for the tying goal.
“In the third period, I think I stood tall when I needed to and made the saves to keep us in the game and got the result we were looking for,” said Unger, who finished with 31 stops on the night. “There are going to be on periods and off periods, but things can’t change for me. I have to stay in there and stay sharp the whole game and think I did that, especially in the third period.”
Seeing his goaltender come up big the way he did was no surprise to O’Leary.
“Things loosened up a little bit in the third period, they got some looks we didn’t like, but that’s why you have a goaltender,” he said. “He made some big saves, obviously one on the backside that he dives across, that’s a game-saving save, but there were other ones as well.
Sometimes when Jackson is playing his best, he makes the hard ones look easy. He’s compact, he’s big in the net, he stays calm and he had his hands all over this win as well.”
For their part, the Blades were more than aware of their slow start and will be looking for a much better showing in Game 4 on Wednesday night.
“I didn’t like out first 20 minutes and our players didn’t either,” said Blades head coach Brennan Sonne. “There were just a billion turnovers and a lack of dig-in, especially in the offensive zone when there were too many times we were one-and-done. I thought it was better in the third, we finally found a little bit of desperation… we know we can get back into games, but you can’t play 20 minutes of a game or 18 minutes of a game, so we have to re-focus and be better.”
Seipmann was of much the same opinion, especially when it comes to how they improved as the game went on.
“We can’t hang out heads, we just have to learn from it and play like we did in the third period for the full 60 minutes (Wednesday),” he said. “That’s what you can expect from us.”
Game time on Wednesday is 7 p.m. at the Moose Jaw Events Centre.
