MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- The Moose Jaw Warriors now know who they’ll be facing in the second round of the Western Hockey League playoffs.
Thanks to the Saskatoon Blades finishing off their first-round series with the Prince Albert Raiders in five games on Friday night, the Warriors will face the Swift Current Broncos in the Eastern Conference semifinal.
While the Broncos finished in second place in the Conference thanks to winning the Central Division and had home-ice advantage in the first round of the playoffs, the teams re-seed according to regular-season records in the second round. As a result, the Warriors will have home-ice advantage in round two.
That means Games 1 and 2 will be at the Moose Jaw Events Centre this coming Friday and Saturday night, with puck drop both games at 7 p.m.
And if the regular season is any indication, it’s going to be a close series.
Unlike the first round where Brandon and Moose Jaw had nearly identical records against one another thanks to the two teams facing each other almost exclusively before the WHL trade deadline, the Warriors and Broncos have made acquaintances several times since Jan. 10.
That included a home-and-home on Jan. 19 and 20 where Moose Jaw took 5-3 and 4-3 wins, while the Broncos picked up a 5-2 victory in the most recent meeting between the two teams on Feb, 19.
Prior to the teams becoming what they are today, the Broncos took a 6-3 win on Nov. 24, Moose Jaw won 4-0 on Nov. 28 and Swift Current took a 7-6 victory on Jan. 6.
As a result, the two teams are all square in the season series with three wins apiece.
The Warriors posted the second-best record in the Eastern Conference in the regular season at 44-21-0-3, including 22-6-0-1 after the trade deadline, while the Broncos were third-best in the Conference at 40-22-4-2, including 20-7-1-1 after the deadline.
Statistically, there’s little question where the advantage lies.
Swift Current was led in scoring by Conor Geekie, who had 43 goals and 99 points in 55 games, followed by Clarke Caswell (68-26-51-77), Rylan Gould (68-23-45-68), Josh Filmon (64-27-40-67) and Connor Hvidston (53-27-32-59) to round out their top five.
The Warriors were topped by WHL scoring leader Jagger Firkus with 61 goals and 126 points in 63 games, followed by a pair of 90-plus point players in Altey Calvert (68-47-48-95) and Brayden Yager (57-35-60-95). They’re followed by the defenceman with the highest points-per-game in the league this season in Denton Mateychuck (52-17-58-75) and the player with highest overall points-per-game in Matthew Savoie (34-30-41-71).
Savoie hasn’t let up in the slightest in the post-season, leading all scorers through four games with five goals and eight points, while Caswell was just as effective in their four-game sweep of Lethbridge with two goals and eight points.
The goaltending match-up will see East Division goaltender of the year Jackson Unger going head-to-head with Boston Bruins draft pick Reid Dyck. Dyck had the better numbers of the two with a 2.70 goals against average and .911 save percentage compared to Unger’s 3.08 GAA and .908 SP, though Unger was far, far busier, with a thousand more minutes played and 10 more wins on his ledger.
Through the first round, Dyck had a 2.30 GAA and .927 SP against one of the lowest-scoring teams in the Eastern Conference in the regular season, while Unger posted a 3.47 GAA and .905 SP while playing behind the highest-scoring offence in the Conference.
Games 3 and 4 of the series are Tuesday and Wednesday in Swift Current, with Game 5 in Moose Jaw on Friday, Apr. 19, Game 6 in Swift Current on Sunday, Apr. 21 and Game 7 in Moose Jaw on Tuesday, Apr. 23.
