The winner of Friday’s semifinal will face the London Knights in Sunday’s Memorial Cup final
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The Moose Jaw Warriors will get another crack at the Saginaw Spirit.
After losing 5-4 in the first game of the 104th Memorial Cup in Saginaw, Mich. to the host team, the Western Hockey League champion Warriors are set to face the Spirit again on Friday (5:30 p.m., TSN) in the semifinal.
The winner will face the Ontario Hockey League champion London Knights in the championship game on Sunday, with that game starting at 5:30 as well.
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The Knights advanced directly to the final after beating the Spirit 4-2 on Wednesday night in the final game of the round robin featuring two teams who entered the match 2-0.
After losing to Saginaw and London to open the tournament, the Warriors beat the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League champion Drummondville Voltigeurs 5-3 on Tuesday to book their spot in the semifinal.
Appearing in their first Memorial Cup, the Warriors will look to become just the third team since 2000 to reach the final after beginning the tournament 0-2. The only other teams to do so were the 2009 champion Windsor Spitfires and the 2002 runner-up Victoriaville Tigres.
In the opening game of this year’s Canadian Hockey League championship, the Warriors got off to a slow start and found themselves in a 4-0 hole against the Spirit.
But Moose Jaw battled back and scored three goals in the final two minutes of the second period to make it 4-3 heading into the third.
Saginaw scored one early in the final frame to take a 5-3 lead and while Moose Jaw scored a goal with 2:47 left to get to within one, they couldn’t find the equalizer despite heavy pressure in the final minute.
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Warriors’ captain Denton Mateychuk — who leads the tournament in scoring with seven points in three games — had a goal and two assists in the loss to Saginaw while forward Brayden Yager — who sits second in tournament scoring with six points in three games — had two goals and an assist.
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