In Battle of Teams With Long Intervals Between WHL Final Appearances, Warriors Out-last Blades to Get There

It was dramatic, historic and a record-breaker all rolled into one, except it didn’t end the way the Saskatoon Blades hoped for on Tuesday night.

Lynden Lakovic scored his second straight overtime winning goal, banking a centring pass off a Bridge City Bunch defender and into the Blue and Gold goal just 36 seconds into O-T, giving the Moose Jaw Warriors a 3-2 victory and the W-H-L’s Eastern Conference Championship in seven games. It was the sixth extra time game of the best-of-seven series, a league record. Moose Jaw never trailed in the do-or-die contest in front of 13,240 fans at SaskTel Centre. Easton Armstrong and Vaughn Watterodt tallied for the Blue and Gold as they out-shot the Warriors 39-25, but suffered from a lack of puck luck around Jackson Unger’s crease. Moose Jaw will start the best-of-seven Ed Chynoweth Cup final on Friday in Portland, their first time in the championship series since 2006. The Warriors have never won the W-H-L title. Neither have the Blades, who fell one game and one goal short of getting to their first league final since 1994. Following are the audio highlights from CJWW’s broadcast, Post-Game Show interviews with Saskatoon head coach Brennan Sonne and captain Trevor Wong plus the official game summary courtesy the W-H-L…..

Moose Jaw Warriors 3 (OT) at Saskatoon Blades 2 – Status: Final OT
Tuesday, May 7, 2024 – SaskTel Centre – Saskatoon, SK

Moose Jaw 1 0 1 1 – 3
Saskatoon 0 1 1 0 – 2

1st Period-1, Moose Jaw, Semeniuk 1 (Parker, Kovacevic), 13:35. Penalties-Wilson Mj (tripping), 11:05.

2nd Period-2, Saskatoon, Armstrong 6 (Siepmann, Wright), 12:22. Penalties-No Penalties

3rd Period-3, Moose Jaw, Firkus 12 (Yager), 10:13. 4, Saskatoon, Watterodt 2 (Volotovskii, Wong), 16:53. Penalties-No Penalties

OT Period-5, Moose Jaw, Lakovic 5 (Calvert, Schuurman), 0:36. Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-Moose Jaw 7-9-8-1-25. Saskatoon 9-17-12-1-39.
Power Play Opportunities-Moose Jaw 0 / 0; Saskatoon 0 / 1.
Goalies-Moose Jaw, Unger (39 shots-37 saves). Saskatoon, Gardner (25 shots-22 saves).
A-13,240
Referees-Adam Bloski (16), Mike Langin (67).
Linesmen-Sean Dufour (50), Chad Huseby (59).