MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- The Moose Jaw Warriors have been waiting for this moment for a long time.
Ever since it became apparent that the local Western Hockey League crew had something interesting going on in the latter half of the regular season, all eyes have been on the playoffs and what could be a rather special run.
That time is now a little over 24 hours away, as the Warriors are set to host the Brandon Wheat Kings in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series on Friday night.
Warriors captain Denton Mateychuk is one of a host of elite veterans looking for a long and successful playoff run, but it all begins with the first round, where nothing can be taken for granted.
“The vibes are good in the room, we’re ready for this and we’ve been building toward this all year,” Mateychuk said after practice on Wednesday afternoon. “I think everybody in the room knows exactly what the goal is and we’re going to do everything we can to realize that.”
The Warriors have spent much of their practice time over the last week refining what had already worked for them, with a focus on making sure the minutiae are taken care of as much as the big things.
The goal is to be as precise as possible when the puck drops on Saturday night.
“You don’t want to change too much, obviously, but everything becomes a lot more detail-important when it comes down to these games,” Mateychuk said. “There are some long weeks in the regular season where you can kind of get away from it, but in the playoffs you want to be on it every game.”
One thing that’s for certain is the Warriors will have a distinct firepower advantage in the series. Brett Hyland capped campaign with 32 goals and 59 points to lead the Wheat Kings in scoring, with the Warriors top five scorers -- Jagger Firkus (61-66-126), Atley Calvery (47-48-95), Brayden Yager (35-60-95), Mateychuk (17-58-75) and Matthew Savoie (34 GP, 30-41-71) -- all having substantially more points.
All told, the Warriors finished with 72 more goals scored while also allowing 16 fewer.
That discrepancy showed in the standings, too, as Moose Jaw capped their regular season with a 44-21-0-3 record and second in points in the Eastern Conference compared to Brandon’s 33-28-6-1 mark and sixth-place showing.
But as anyone who follows the WHL postseason knows, strange things can happen, and in no way, shape or form will the Warriors be taking Brandon lightly, especially if their captain has anything to say about it.
“They’re going to come out hard and play hard and we have to match that,” Mateychuk said. “We have to be detailed and we have to make sure we’re not giving up odd-man rushes. They’re a transition team, so we have to be ready for that as D with tight gaps and making sure we’re hard on the puck and I think we’ll do alright.
“Lots of teams we’ve faced lately have been playing a quick transition game, so we’re used to it and that’s definitely something we’ll have to be looking for.”
Should things go according to plan, there’s little question the potential is there for a magical run this postseason, and that’s something that naturally remains the ultimate goal.
“It’s definitely in our minds, but we’re trying not to think of that very much,” Mateychuk said. “You’re not going to get to that end result in one game, you have to go through four series, so it’s going to be a hard push by us, we’re going to have to give it our all and we’ll see what happens.”
Puck drop in Game 1 is 7 p.m. Friday at the Moose Jaw Events Centre, with Game 2 set for Saturday in Moose Jaw, also at 7 p.m.
