PREVIEW | Eastern Conference Championship shifts to Moose Jaw
Moose Jaw, SK – After securing a split on the road to open up the Eastern Conference Championship, the Moose Jaw Warriors and Saskatoon Blades come to the Hangar.
The Warriors prepare to host the Blades for Game 3 on Tuesday night at a sold-out Moose Jaw Events Centre.
“The Hangar will be rocking and it will be about us playing with energy, playing with enthusiasm, but a full building certainly helps,” Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary said.
The anticipated sell out will be the fourth straight for the Warriors in the playoffs and has set up a strong home ice advantage for the team heading into two key games in their seven-game series against the Blades.
“We’re excited, any time you get one up there and then you have a chance to get two back at home, it’s always nice coming home to a big crowd,” Warriors forward Atley Calvert said.
The first two games in Saskatoon lived up to expectations as the Warriors and Blades went toe-to-toe for eight periods of hockey.
Both sides came away with an overtime win as Moose Jaw took Game 1 before Saskatoon secured a bounce back win in Game 2.
“Overall, we were happy with both games, we generated enough scoring chances to win the game, even in Game 2, I thought we had our looks but we gave up a little bit too much, especially in the second one,” O’Leary said.
Coming out of Game 2, the Warriors feel like they need to tighten up defensively to limit the scoring opportunities for the Blades heading into Game 3.
“We’ve made a couple of adjustments from game-to-game and we’ve been executing our details well,” Calvert said.
“We just need to keep doing the little things, keep practicing with the adjustments that we’ve made and make sure we’re executing at the highest level.”
Jackson Unger won WHL Goaltender of the Week after making 62 saves combined the two games in Saskatoon.
O’Leary said he got better as those games went on and was a key reason that Moose Jaw had a shot at coming out with two wins.
“Especially in Game 2, I thought we gave up a bit too much, but he allowed us to stay in the game and have our looks,” O’Leary said. “When he’s at his best, he’s looking calm, he’s comfortable, he competes in the net and we saw that in Saskatoon.”
Going into Game 3 on Tuesday night, the Warriors know they’re in for another battle against the Blades.
“The key is our start, it was better in Game 2 than it was in the first game, but not even the result, just playing the right way, playing hard, having guys around the puck and doing what we do well right off the start,” O’Leary said.
The Warriors and Blades square off at 7 p.m. on Tuesday night. Tune into all the action on Country 100 and CHL TV. The Pre-Game Show gets underway on IKS Media Warriors Live at 6:40 p.m. on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.