PREVIEW | Warriors ready for road test in Game 3 against Brandon
Brandon, MB – After taking both games on home ice, the Moose Jaw Warriors are ready for the challenge in front of them as they head on the road to Brandon.
The Warriors have set up in Manitoba for games three and four of their first-round series against the Wheat Kings this week.
“We’ve just got to keep doing the same thing, but every game is more important than the last, so just keep looking forward to that next game and getting that big victory and stay hungry,” Warriors defenceman Lucas Brenton said.
Brenton currently leads the Warriors in scoring through the first two games of the series with two helpers in each of the first two games.
The 20-year-old defenceman said he’s laying everything on the line in his final Western Hockey League playoff run.
“I’m putting everything out there and just do what I can to help our team out and hopefully stay in this as long as we can,” he said.
“I’m just playing hard, playing my game, playoffs is obviously a different breed, it’s a different style of hockey, it’s a lot more hard and that suits my game well.”
After having the home crowd behind them for the first two games, the Warriors will now head on the road where they will get to play the role of villains.
Warriors forward Matthew Savoie said the team can feed off that energy as well.
“We did what we wanted to do at home, got both games, not all of it was pretty, but we got what we wanted,” he said.
“Even as a road team, you can feed off the energy and the crowd, it’s playoffs, you should be able to get up for every single game, so our group is as excited as ever and we’re ready to get going.”
Moose Jaw controlled the play in Game 1 of the series on their way to a 7-4 win, but saw a strong push back from the Wheat Kings in Game 2 before winning, 5-4, in overtime.
Savoie said they’re expecting Brandon to push back even harder in Game 3 on their home ice.
“They’re a physical team, they’re a hard-working team that likes to put the pressure on us, so we’ll do some more video and go through some more things and refine our game a little bit more,” he said.
The Warriors and Wheat Kings square off for Game 3 on Wednesday night at Westoba Place in Brandon. Puck drops at 6 p.m. Saskatchewan time.
You can catch all the playoff action on WHL Live and Country 100, starting with the Pre-Game Show at 5:40 p.m.
