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

Article content

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. 

Article content

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 secure the win. 

Article content

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

Moose Jaw (1-2) 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 lost to Saginaw 5-4 in the opening game of the Memorial Cup on Friday and then fell 5-4 to London on Monday. 

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.

Article content

Article content

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 putting home a loose puck in the slot 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. 

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. 

Article content

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 on net in the game were 52-28 for Drummondville, as Unger made 49 saves in the victory. 

tshire@postmedia.com

The Regina Leader-Post has created an Afternoon Headlines newsletter that can be delivered daily to your inbox so you are up to date with the most vital news of the day. Click here to subscribe.

With some online platforms blocking access to the journalism upon which you depend, our website is your destination for up-to-the-minute news, so make sure to bookmark leaderpost.com and sign up for our newsletters so we can keep you informed. Click here to subscribe.

Article content