Moose Jaw Warriors move on to Memorial Cup semifinal with 5-3 win over Drummondville

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The Moose Jaw Warriors are still in the hunt at the 104th Memorial Cup. 

On Tuesday night in Saginaw, Mich., the Western Hockey League champion Warriors beat the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League champion Drummondville Voltigeurs 5-3 in a must-win game between two teams who were winless entering the match. 

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Warriors’ defenceman Aiden Ziprick — who has just one goal in 104 career WHL regular season and playoff games —scored a shorthanded, game-winning goal for Moose Jaw with just 1:34 left in the game to break a 3-3 tie and secure the win. 

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“Obviously a close game and we needed a goal so to get that one for the guys is just huge for me,” Ziprick said after the game. “I’ll definitely remember that for the rest of my life.”

“Couldn’t happen to a better guy,” Warriors’ head coach Mark O’Leary said of Ziprick. “That’s what the playoffs are all about.

“It’s about different guys in different moments.”

With the victory, the Warriors (1-2) move on to Friday’s semifinal (5:30 p.m., TSN), while the Voltigeurs (0-3) were eliminated from the Canadian Hockey League championship. 

“I thought we started the game looking like ourselves,” said O’Leary. “We had everybody playing the right way and we got a little bit of momentum from that.

“This group, they’re not ready to be done yet.”

Moose Jaw will face either the host Saginaw Spirit (2-0) or the Ontario Hockey League champion London Knights (2-0), who are set to meet in the final round robin game on Wednesday with the winner advancing directly to Sunday’s final while the loser will head to the semifinal. 

Moose Jaw previously lost to Saginaw 5-4 in the opening game of the Memorial Cup on Friday and then fell 5-4 to London on Monday. 

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After losing in a pair of one-goal games, Tuesday’s game also came down to the wire as the Warriors picked up their first-ever Memorial Cup victory in the franchise’s first appearance at the event since relocating to Moose Jaw in 1984. 

The Warriors opened the scoring 12 minutes into the first period on a nice passing play as Lynden Lakovic made a slick move to enter the zone before sliding it to Atley Calvert, who then slid it across the ice to Vojtech Port.  

From there, the import defenceman slammed it into the back of the net from a tight angle to make it 1-0.

In the second period, the Warriors extended their lead as Jagger Firkus fired home a pass from Brayden Yager on the powerplay to make it 2-0. For Moose Jaw, it was their first powerplay goal of the Memorial Cup. 

With 7:17 left in the middle frame, the Warriors made it 3-0 with captain Denton Mateychuk — who also scored in each of the first two games — putting home a loose puck past Voltigeurs’ goalie Riley Mercer to extend Moose Jaw’s lead. 

The Voltigeurs got on the board just two minutes later as Justin Cote fired home a one-timer over the shoulder Warriors’ goalie Jackson Unger to make it 3-1. 

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Then just a minute later, Drummondville made it a one-goal game as Voltigeurs’ forward Peter Repcik slapped one in from the side boards to make it 3-2 after 40 minutes. 

Just over three minutes into the third period, the Voltigeurs tied the game 3-3 as Alexis Gendron wired home a shot from the top of the circle after a faceoff win. 

After Moose Jaw took a roughing penalty with 3:23 to go, the Voltigeurs had a chance to take the lead on the powerplay, but instead it was the Warriors capitalizing shorthanded as Ziprick scored the go-ahead goal on a pass from Mateychuk wih just 1:34 left to put Moose Jaw on top 4-3.

For Mateychuk — the WHL playoff MVP — it was his tournament-leading seventh point in his third game.

Drummondville pulled their goalie to look for the tying goal, but the Warriors were able to clear the zone before Matt Savoie fed Brayden Yager, who put it into the empty net to make it 5-3 for Moose Jaw, which would be the final score. 

Shots in the game were 52-28 for Drummondville, as Unger was named the game’s top player with a 49 save performance.

“Throughout the game you get in a groove seeing that many shots,” said Unger. “We played our game and when our backs are up against the wall, we knew what we had to do and we got it done.”

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tshire@postmedia.com

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