MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- The Moose Jaw Warriors and Saskatoon Blades are heading to Canada’s Most Notorious City all tied in the Western Hockey League Eastern Conference final.
Fraser Minton scored with 6:40 remaining in overtime to give the Blades a 3-2 overtime victory in Game 2 in Saskatoon, with the series now tied at a game apiece after Moose Jaw’s 4-3 overtime win one night earlier.
The Warriors continue to have home-ice advantage, with the series now reverting to the Moose Jaw Events Centre for Game 3 and 4 on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The first penalties of the game -- coincidental slashing minors to the Warriors Matthew Savoie and Saskatoon’s Egor Sidorov -- lead to Moose Jaw’s first excellent scoring chance of the night.
Brayden Yager and Jagger Firkus went in on a two-on-one late in the four-on-four, with Firkus putting the feed over the net.
An interference penalty to Kalem Parker put the Blades on the first power play of the game, but they would be unable to capitalize thanks to a couple of saves by Jackson Unger, including a point-blank stop on Brandon Lisowsky from the top of the crease.
The Warriors would break through with the first goal with 12:33 gone in the opening frame. Matthew Savoie carried up ice on a two-on-one with Atley Calvert, with the Moose Jaw Minor Hockey product taking the pass on his wing and putting a shot off Blades goaltender Evan Gardner’s blocker and in.
Martin Rysavy nearly made it 2-0 with six minutes to play in the first period when he just missed slamming home a feed from Firkus, but moments later the Warriors would finish another one off.
Some good work in the zone led to Brayden Yager tapping a pass to Kalem Parker, and he’d work his way into the high slot before putting a shot home top shelf to give Moose Jaw the two-goal lead with 2:40 to play in the frame.
The Warriors’ top line kept coming and once again had a great chance with just over a minute remaining. With Gardner caught out of his net, Firkus got a pass out front to Rysavy, but the Columbus Blue Jackets prospect would be unable to control the bouncing puck and his shot would go wide.
Moose Jaw received their first power play of the series with 5:45 gone in the second when Grayden Siepmann was called for closing his hand on the puck, but the Warriors wouldn’t be able to take advantage.
The Blades caught a break on a penalty call at the 10:29 mark when Cosmo Wilson was hit with a penalty for tripping Fraser Minton, only for the replay to show that Minton had lost his edge with no input from Wilson.
Sure enough, the Blades would score.
Tanner Molendyk did the honours, with his shot through traffic finding the back of the net with 11 minutes gone.
Firkus was then hit with a hooking penalty two minutes later, but the Warriors would successfully kill it off before going on the man advantage themselves when Trevor Wong took a roughing penalty moments after Firkus got out of the box.
Saskatoon successfully killed that one off, and with 2:31 to go in the second period would tie the game. Egor Sidorov partially fanned on a between the legs shot in close on Jackson Unger, only for the rebound to go right to Brandon Lisowsky in front of the net, and he’d score his fifth of the playoffs to make it a 2-2 game.
The two teams ended up in a tight-checking battle to start the third, with Parker getting one of the best chances when he rang a point shot off the crossbar five minutes in. The Warriors had a few more great opportunities as the period progressed, but couldn’t find a way to break through.
The Blades received their fifth power play of the game with 8:40 to play in the period when Brayden Yager was hit with a crosschecking penalty, but the Warriors penalty kill came up big and kept the game tied.
Nothing was settled the remainder of regulation and for the second straight night the teams went to overtime.
Yager had a great chance to be the hero for the second straight night five minutes into the extra frame, but Gardner would make a save on a cross crease scoring chance.
Wong had a chance of his own a few minutes later, and like his counterpart, Unger came up big with the stop.
That set the stage for Minten, who went in on the rush with Lukas Hansen, took a cross-ice feed that snuck between a defenders legs and put a shot home at the 13:06 mark.
Unger finished the game with 34 saves, while Gardner had 25 stops total.
Tickets are nearly sold out for Games 3 and 4, check www.sasktix.ca for availability.
