MOOSEJAWEXPRESS.COM -- The most anticipated games of the 2023-24 Western Hockey League season are finally here.
The Moose Jaw Warriors and Swift Current Broncos will take the ice Friday night in Game 1 of the WHL Eastern Conference semifinal tonight at the Moose Jaw Events Centre, with close to 5,000 fans expected to pack the local rink for the opening game of the series.
Those fans will see two teams that are well-rested and as healthy as can be for this time of the season, something that should make for an interesting series between a pair of crews with serious eyes on the Conference final.
And it all begins when the puck drops at 7 p.m. Friday night.
“It’s going to be a tough match-up for sure,” said Warriors head coach Mark ‘O’Leary. “These are two similar teams, we can both score goals and have a defence that is more than capable of defending and contributing offensively and two goaltenders who have been relied on heavily at times this season. So it’s going to be about us executing what we do as a team and let the chips fall where they may.”
The Warriors got through the first round in a four-game sweep of the Brandon Wheat Kings, while the Broncos did the same against the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
As a result, both teams have had plenty of time off between games, something O’Leary’s crew put to good use.
“We took advantage of the extra days to get some rest, but I think it paid off at practice this week,” he said. “I love the energy, the enthusiasm and the guys are champing at the bit to get back at it.”
Just as important as the physical rest was the mental rest, with the chance to get away from the constant high-intensity of the playoffs even for a couple of days extremely valuable at this time of year.
“The mind reset is just as important as the body,” O'Leary said. “The body does whatever you ask it to, but if you have some days where you can step back and relax and ease your mind a little bit, get your mind off of things, that can help your legs as well.
“We’ve done a pretty good job of that the last month or so and we’re seeing it now in terms of how the guys are playing.”
Making the series even more interesting is how close things were between the teams in the regular season. In addition to the 3-3 head-to-head record, the Warriors were 22-6-0-1 after the trade deadline, while the Broncos were 20-7-1-1.
And in that situation, it simply comes down to who is playing the best.
“Every game tells a story, and it’s one thing to lose in the regular season, but if you can learn something from those losses, which we have, that can be the difference,” O’Leary said. “It wasn’t our best game when we played them last time (a 5-2 loss on Feb. 19), but we learned from what we didn’t do well.
“The big thing is to play honest,” he added. “If you cheat, you give up odd-man rushes going the other way. So, can you manage the puck and can you check? We’re willing to do that and we’ll give ourselves a good shot.”
One thing that’s for certain, the atmosphere for the first four games is going to be something else.
After a complete sell-out for Games 1 and 2 in Moose Jaw, the Moose Jaw Events Centre released 70 more tickets for Game 1 on Friday morning, only for those to be snapped up quickly.
As a result, the Warriors and Broncos will be playing in front of two of the largest crowds to see a playoff game in team history.
“I think the guys are in for a treat in both buildings,” O’Leary said. “All four games are going to be sold out, and our guys are fired up about it, it adds a little bit of juice to their legs and it’s just about not changing anything we’re doing, just let that energy feed you.”
The last time a playoff series was completely sold out was the last time the two teams met in the second round, back when O’Leary was an assistant coach to Tim Hunter.
“With this much on the line, I remember back in ‘17-18 when we were playing Swift Current, there were some wild nights in both buildings,” he said. “So if it’s anything like that, we’re in for something special.”
