Moose Jaw Warriors face London Knights in second game of the Memorial Cup

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The Moose Jaw Warriors have their backs against the wall at the 104th Memorial Cup.

On Monday night at the Canadian Hockey League championship in Saginaw, Mich., the Western Hockey League champion Warriors lost 5-4 to the Ontario Hockey League champion London Knights.

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Moose Jaw (0-2) now faces a must-win game on Tuesday against the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League champion Drummondville Voltigeurs.

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Drummondville (0-2) previously lost 4-0 to London on Saturday and 4-3 to the host Saginaw Spirit on Sunday, meaning the winner of Tuesday’s game will move on to Friday’s semifinal while the loser will be eliminated from the tournament.

Meanwhile, London (2-0) will play Saginaw (2-0) on Wednesday to wrap the round robin with the winner advancing directly to Sunday’s final. The loser will play in Friday’s semifinal. All games are televised on TSN beginning at 5:30 p.m.

After digging themselves into a 4-0 hole in an eventual 5-4 loss to the Spirit in their opening game on Friday, the Warriors got off to a better start on Monday against London as they opened the scoring just 3:39 into the game as WHL playoff MVP Denton Mateychuk snapped a shot over the shoulder of Knights’ goalie Michael Simpson to make it 1-0 Moose Jaw.

However, the Warriors gave that goal back midway through the frame as the London forward Ruslan Gazizov took advantage of a Moose Jaw turnover behind their own net, as he beat Warriors’ goalie Jackson Unger to make it 1-1.

Just seconds after the tying goal, Warriors’ forward Jagger Firkus had a glorious chance to respond, but a sprawling Simpson somehow managed to keep the puck out with the knob of his stick.

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With 2:10 left in the first period, the Knights then took the lead as Sam Dickinson fired a shot from the slot past Unger to put London on top 2-1 after 20 minutes.

In the second period, Moose Jaw responded as forward Ethan Semeniuk put home a rebound for his second of the post-season on a point shot by Aiden Ziprick to make it 2-2.

However, London responded almost immediately as Sam O’Reilly made a slick move from the bottom of the circle before roofing it over Unger to put the Knights on top 3-2.

The Knights then made it 4-2 in the second period as Landon Sim finished off a two-on-one with O’Reilly just as a Warriors powerplay ended.

London then scored their third straight goal later in the second period, as Kasper Halttunen beat Unger on the powerplay to make it 5-2.

But on the ensuing faceoff just six seconds later, the Warriors got that goal back on a fortunate bounce as Semeniuk threw it on net from the neutral zone as the puck bounced past Simpson and in to make it a 5-3 game through 40 minutes.

In the third, with 3:55 left and Unger pulled for an extra attacker, the Warriors got to within one as Martin Rysavy jammed home a loose puck in front to make it 5-4.

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But that’s as close as Moose Jaw would get as London shut the door in the final minutes to secure the win.

“Getting the first (6-on-5 goal) was big but putting yourself in a situation where you need two goals in the last three minutes is not where you want to be,” Firkus said after the game. “We’ve got to clean that up for (Tuesday).”

Overall, the shots in the game were 30-28 in favour of Moose Jaw. The Warriors were 0-for-4 on the powerplay, while London was 1-for-2.

tshire@postmedia.com

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