2024 Memorial Cup semi-final preview – Warriors vs. Spirit – May 31
A meeting with the London Knights in the 2024 Memorial Cup final is on the line tonight.
The Moose Jaw Warriors and hosts Saginaw Spirit are set to clash in the tournament’s semi-final where the winner will advance to Sunday’s final.
“It’s do-or-die,” Moose Jaw’s Brayden Yager (PIT) said.
The Warriors find themselves in the semi-final through the unlikeliest of heroes in defenceman Aiden Ziprick.
The 18-year-old blueliner scored the game-winner Tuesday against Drummondville shorthanded with just 94 seconds left in regulation in a 5-3 win. Across 102 career games in the regular season and postseason, Ziprick had just one WHL goal to his name before Tuesday’s winner.
“We were so happy for him,” Yager said of Ziprick. “He scored such a huge goal. It was from such an unexpected guy. Zips isn’t a goalscorer but he’s been a great player for us all year. He’s a solid stay-at-home defenceman but he can rip the ‘pill’ and he got his chance and made the most of it.”
The victory capped off a 1-2-0 round-robin for the WHL champions. They opened the tournament with a narrow 5-4 loss to Saginaw one week ago while they were again involved in a one-goal game in a 5-4 defeat to London on Sunday.
However, in a must-win game against the Voltigeurs, Mark O’Leary’s men prevailed to keep their season alive and secure a spot in tonight’s semi-final.
“It wasn’t our best preliminary round,” Yager said. “I think we got better as the games went on. We started pretty slow in the first two games, had a couple of breakdowns in the third game against Drummondville, but if we play a full 60 minutes, we can really show that we can win this thing.”
Moose Jaw’s 13 goals are tied for the tournament lead alongside London but their 13 goals against were tied for the most with Drummondville. However, two of their future NHL stars sit atop the tournament scoring leaderboard; captain Denton Mateychuk (CBJ) has seven points while Yager is a point behind.
“We’ve shown we are more than capable of dominating,” Yager said. “The end of that second period against Saginaw, we scored three quick goals. If we can create offence from below the dots, we’ll be setting ourselves up for a lot goals.”
As for Saginaw, they have a second opportunity to reach the Memorial Cup final.
A 4-2 defeat to London the round-robin finale saw the Spirit drop into tonight’s semi-final while the Knights advanced to Sunday’s final.
“At the end of the day we wanted to book our ticket but there’s a lot of teams that haven’t won a Memorial Cup without winning a semi-final,” Spirit captain Braden Haché said.
Saginaw began the tournament 2-0-0 after a 5-4 victory over Moose Jaw on opening night while they beat Drummondville 4-3 Sunday in a come-from-behind win.
However, Easton Cowan (TOR) scored the game-winner with 85 seconds left Wednesday as the Spirit fell 4-2.
“It’s crazy how much every game resets,” Haché said. “Moose Jaw finds themselves in this position with a different record than the other two teams and we were trying to book a ticket into the final but now we’re in the semi-final and one win away from the final again. It’s all over the place so you have to mentally reset for each game but it’s exciting.”
Through three games, 2024 NHL Draft prospect Zayne Parekh leads the team in scoring with five points while his four assists are part of a three-way tie for the tournament lead.
Chris Lazary’s team have scored 11 goals – Alex Christopoulos, Hunter Haight (MIN), and Nica Sima have all scored twice – but have also conceded the same number to rank third in both categories.
Wednesday’s game saw more than 5,300 fans pack the Dow Event Center to cheer on the hosts. With a victory a must tonight, the atmosphere continues to be something the Spirit can feed off of.
“It’s been a blast,” Haché said. “Coming out for warmups, it’s packed already. The chants mid-game. The support from the community has been next to none and as a hockey player that’s all you can ask for.”
Puck drop is at 7:30pm ET / 4:30pm PT live on TSN 1, RDS, NHL Network and CHL TV.
2024 Memorial Cup presented by Dow schedule:
May 24 – Game 1: Moose Jaw 4-5 Saginaw
May 25 – Game 2: London 4-0 Drummondville
May 26 – Game 3: Saginaw 4-3 Drummondville
May 27 – Game 4: London 5-4 Moose Jaw
May 28 – Game 5: Drummondville 3-5 Moose Jaw
May 29 – Game 6: Saginaw 2-4 London
May 31 – Semi-final — Moose Jaw vs. Saginaw
June 2 – Final — 7:30pm ET
