Series Breakdown: Moose Jaw Warriors vs. Winnipeg Ice
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You may remember last year’s WHL playoffs; and you may not remember it fondly. It was the Winnipeg Ice who ended the Moose Jaw Warriors season.
Well, 2023 was a whole new campaign. But undoubtedly there are some Warriors looking to exact revenge.
Winnipeg Ice - photo credit Saltwire
In order to win a Championship you’ve got to be the best team; and in order to be the best team you’ve got to beat the best teams.
Well, so far, the Winnipeg Ice have been the best team in the WHL all season; and that’s exactly who is standing in the way of the Moose Jaw Warriors’ journey to winning a Championship.
Moose Jaw can either step up to the challenge and assert themselves as the true greats or Winnipeg can continue its reign dominance over the league.
The games begin April 14th.
Schedule via Moose Jaw Warriors
The Winnipeg Ice had a league leading 57 wins during the regular season, and only 10 losses. They finished the campaign with 115 points.
Your Moose Jaw Warriors, on the other hand, had a respectable 41 wins and 85 points.
That’s a really good record. But Winnipeg’s success rate is on a completely different level.
However, it bodes well for the Warriors that they’ve actually had some success against the Ice, splitting the season series with 3 wins and 3 losses.
No other team has gotten to the Ice quite like the Warriors have.
This is not something that Winnipeg hasn’t noticed either. You can bet your bottom dollar that they’re building a game-plan around those previous matches.
Zachary Benson was Winnipeg’s top scorer - photo credit Twitter
One of those Warriors wins; the most recent one (March 22), came courtesy of the suspension-depleted Warriors squad that, in no way, resembled the club we saw in the first round of the playoffs, bulldozing through the the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
What I’m saying is. Moose Jaw has a far better chance of winning this series than the season stats portend. And Winnipeg knows it.
Matthew Savoie scored 9 points in the first round series - photo credit Twitter
Offense:
The Warriors score a lot of goals.
They scattered 252 over the regular season.
Then another impressive 18 in their 4 game sweep of the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
But those numbers pale in comparison to what the Ice put up.
They scored 325 then added 20 in their sweep of Medicine Hat. Winnipeg has a clear advantage when it comes to scoring goals.
Three guys on the Ice had more than 90 points: Zachary Benson, Matthew Savoie and Connor McClennon.
Moose Jaw’s top scorer was Jagger Firkus, with 88.
Connor McClennon finished the season with 92 points - photo credit Twittero
Ben Zloty was the Ice’s highest producing defenceman. He tallied 81 points. Denton Mateychuk, the Warriors top Blueliner, only reached 65.
Connor Geekie and Owen Pederson each surpassed 70 points for Winnipeg and deadline acquisition Zach Ostapchuk, who won Gold with Team Canada at the World Juniors, had 67 in only 55 appearances.
Zach Ostapchuk was brought in at the trade deadline - photo credit Twitter
Comparatively, the Warriors had Brayden Yager and Atley Calvert surpass 70; and it’s fair to assume that Ryder Korczak would have too had he played more than 48 games.
Defence:
Ben Zloty is Winnipeg’s premier Power Play defenceman
Aside from Ben Zloty, Winnipeg also has another star blueliner in Carson Lambos. Lambos was drafted in the first round of the NHL draft, by the Minnesota Wild.
Graham Sward, another Ice defenceman, was drafted by Nashville in 2022.
They’ve also got a young Jonas Woo, brother of Warriors legend Jett Woo, on the ice every night.
Jonas Woo, brother of Warrior legend Jett Woo - via Twitter
Defensively, the Ice were also much better than the Warriors’.
They allowed only 177 goals all season. That’s the third lowest total in the league, behind only Seattle and Saskatoon.
The Warriors, on the other hand, allowed 237 goals. It’s not even close.
However, a measure of relief can be taken knowing that the Warriors lost a bunch of lopsided games while Connor Ungar, their starting goalie, and Max Wanner, our top defensive defenceman, were out of the lineup.
So those number might not necessarily represent the reality of the situation.
Goaltending:
(Daniel Hauser - photo credit Winnipeg Ice
Winnipeg’s goalie, Daniel Hauser, isn’t used to losing.
He finished the season with a 37-4 win/loss record. Allowing, on average 2.28 goals per game. His Save Percentage was at 0.917.
To put it bluntly; he’s really good. Hauser is better than Connor Ungar by every metric except for the most important one: Save %. Ungar is, quite simply, better at keeping the puck out of his net.
Only Thomas Milic, the Gold Medal winning starter from Team Canada, was better in that regard.
I’ve long said that Connor Ungar is the Moose Jaw Warriors real MVP; and if the Warriors are going to pull of an upset here he’s gonna have to be spectacular.
Winnipeg is going to put a lot of pucks on the net and he will need to be sharp, at all times.
Related Reading: Connor Ungar is the Warriors MVP.
Summary:
Regardless of the outcome, this is a series jam-packed with top tier talent.
Moose Jaw has five NHL drafted players plus Brayden Yager, who is expected to go in the first round in 2023.
Those draftees don’t even include Connor Ungar.
Brayden Yager has much to prove - photo credit, Moose Jaw Warriors Twitter
Winnipeg, though, has even more star power. Savoie, Geekie and Lambos are all first rounders, and according to mynhldraft.com Zachary Benson is predicted to 6th overall this year. They’ve also got 3 other draftees.
So there will be plenty of future stars on the ice that might be worth checking out.
Prediction:
Personally, I think Moose Jaw has a far better chance of winning this series than most people would give them credit for.
They play well against Winnipeg and looked incredibly good in dispatching Lethbridge.
Jagger Firkus was exceptionally good in Round One, tallying 10 points. The team will look to him to continue with that output.
Jagger Firkus was incredible in Round One - photo credit Seattle Kraken
Winnipeg is going to score goals.
A lot more than Lethbridge did.
You can count on that.
So the Warriors top guys are going to need to produce too. From what we’ve seen this season, the tribe tends to come alive when they’re playing the Ice; that’s going to need to continue.
Look for Ryder Korczak to play some of the best hockey of his life; he’s shown himself to be the guy who digs in the deepest when the stakes are high. and look for Connor Ungar to be a brick wall in net. He’s going to need to be. There’s no way around it.
Connor Ungar will need to be sharp - Mj Independent file photo
Ultimately though, even at their best, the Warriors struggled with consistency and losing focus.
The same can’t be said about the Ice; and that will be the decisive factor in what I believe will be a very competitive series.
Revenge will not be served here. Rather, Winnipeg will re-enforce their dominance.
Winnipeg will win the series in Game 7 and in one or two of those games Moose Jaw will come out flat and Winnipeg will win by a large margin; possibly even in the deciding Game 7.
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