Moose Jaw v Portland: Championship Series Breakdown
Moose Jaw Warriors! 2024 Eastern Conference Champions - via Moose Jaw Warriors X
By Twitter: @MJWarriorsFun
Instagram: @moosejawwarriors_history
Wowsers! It’s been quite a journey.
The Warriors staved off defeat, eliminating the league’s best Saskatoon Blades, by the skin of their collective prairie teeth, in the most scintillating fashion.
It isn’t supposed to get any easier from here though, so don’t think the battling is over. (Spoiler! Moose Jaw’s got this).
Your Moose Jaw Warriors are in the Ed Chynoweth Cup, with a fantastic chance to win the franchise’s very first WHL Championship. Standing in their path are the mighty Portland Winterhawks.
Portland Winterhawks. 2024 Western Conference Champions - pic Via Portland Winterhawks
Portland, the WHL’s highest scoring hockey team, won 48 games this season and scored 33 goals more than Moose Jaw did. They definitely pack some punch.
While Moose Jaw is attempting to overcome some demons and win their first ever WHL Championship, the Winterhawks is a relaxed organization with a long history of success.
They’ve won three Cups before and two Memorial Cups.
Prince George Cougars fans were convinced this was their year to break a curse and Portland had no qualms about killing that rhetoric in the Conference finals, finishing them off in a six game series that was nearly as exhilarating as the Warriors/Blades one.
No doubt the Hawks are salivating at the chance to ensure the Warriors stay cursed forever.
James Stefan scored 50 goals in the regular season - pic via Portland Winterhawks X
Let’s get into a Series Breakdown.
Season Series:
On account of the bus ride between Moose Jaw and Portland takes 18 hours, the two clubs don’t face each other with any regularity.
They met once this season, in Portland, and Moose Jaw got the better of them, beating the 4-3, on the backs of three point nights from Matt Savoie and Atley Calvert.
The Warriors beat them last year too in their only meeting.
Heck, the Warriors haven’t lost to the Hawks since February 2020.
Offence:
Well, if we are just looking at statistics, Portland seems far better than Moose Jaw by nearly every important metric.
The scoring gap being the most noticeable.
Portland scores a ton of goals. The most in the WHL (330). Moose Jaw only netted 297.
Portland’s offence is incredibly deep. They consistently get loads of offence from three lines.
Whereas the brunt of Moose Jaw’s scoring comes from two lines, Portland’s is much more spread out.
Lynden Lakovic scored game-winning OT goals in games 5 and 6
The Warriors’ common third line guys, Brayden Schuurman, Rilen Kovacevic and Lynden Lakovic, were incredibly effective in the Saskatoon series and will be relied upon to continue that success in the Championship.
The Hawks had two scorers surpass the 100 point marker in the regular season.
Gabe Klassen led the team in points with 106 (35 goals and 71 assists) and James Stefan (whose father, Patrik Stefan was a first overall NHL draft pick in 1999) scored the teams most goals, with 50 (and 51 assists).
The two of them most often work together, on the same line, and gel pretty effectively.
Gabe Klassen. Portland’s leader in points
Earlier in the season, Portland acquired Nate Danielson in a deal with the Brandon Wheat Kings.
He’s a first round NHL Draft pick of the Detroit Red Wings, and most likely destined to a long and fruitful career at the highest level of the game.
Danielson has been the team’s best producer during the playoffs, with 21 points.
Nate Danielson is Portland’s biggest star. He is if first round pick of the Detroit Red Wings
For the most part Danielson has been working on a line with Marcus Nguyen and Jack O’Brien. Those three have combined for 47 postseason points.
Josh Davies was Portland’s Game 7 OT hero.
Doing for the Hawks exactly what Lynden Lakovic did for the Warriors.
He’s scored five goals in the playoffs.
Josh Davies scored the Double OT winner in Game 6 - pic by Kyle Smutzki
The Hawks also get a lot of production from Diego Buttazzoni, Kyle Chyzowski and Josh Zakreski. They are extremely versatile and always have frightening scoring threats patrolling the ice.
However, the Warriors top scorers have been even better.
Jagger Firkus has 27 points, as does Defenceman Denton Mateychuk. Brayden Yager has 21 and Matthew Savoie 20.
The Warriors might not get as many goals from the bottom lines as Portland does but their top tier talent scores far more often.
Defence:
The Winterhawks back-end is led by Luca Cagnoni, who led all WHL Defencemen in scoring.
He’s a dynamic skater and passer who works particularly well on the Power Play.
He’s somewhat similar to Warriors’ Captain Denton Mateychuk.
Only, Mateychuk has been playing the best hockey of his career, during the postseason, totalling 27 points in the three series’.
Cagnoni, on the other hand, has been somewhat quiet, contributing just 3 goals and 7 assists. Cagnoni was a fourth round pick of the San Jose Sharks.
Luka Cagnoni could explode at any moment - pic Matthew Wolfe
Thankfully for Portland, they’ve got three other NHL selected defenders, on the roster, to pick up his slack.
Tyson Jugnauth has 15 points, while Carter Sotheran and Marek Alscher combined for 16.
Portland’s defence is built similar to the way Moose Jaw’s is; an uber-talented leader (Mateychuk) surrounded by a host of bruisers and puck-movers (Lucas Brenton, Kalem Parker and Vojtech Port).
Goaltending:
Jan Spunar - via Kristina photos
Once again, the Warriors will have to overcome an exceptional goaltender.
They’ve handled that well enough so far.
This time it’s Jan Spunar, A 6’3” Czech wall who played 35 games and finished with a 2.12 GAA and a .913 Save Percentage.
Both those stats far surpass what Moose Jaw has been getting from Jackson Unger.
Unger struggled in a couple games against Saskatoon and was even pulled once.
It’s very possible a situation like that arises again with Portland’s potent offence. However, he was strong when it mattered most in the final two games.
Summary:
I can see, when looking at all the data presented, why one might think this series would be an easy win for Portland.
Statistically, they’re better at every single important metric.
But I would argue, in this case, those statistics means a lot less that Hawks’ fans want to believe.
Moose Jaw would have scored 330 goals, no problem, if they had played Tri-City, Spokane, Wenatchee and Seattle six times each, rather than the stingy D of Saskatoon, Brandon and Prince Albert.
The two conferences just aren’t the same; and right now the better conference is in the East.
Portland finished 4-6 when playing Eastern teams, losing to Swift Current, P.A and MOOSE JAW, in the process.
Moose Jaw, on the other hand, walked through the West coast teams with hardly a scratch.
They went 9-2 against West Coast teams, beating all five American Clubs in one road trip.
Portland is good. Don’t get me wrong. But in the Eastern conference they would not have come even close to dominating the way they did in the West.
I think Swift Current would beat Portland in 7.
I think Saskatoon would beat them in 6.
And I think Moose Jaw will beat them in 5.
Moose Jaw is chock-full of first round draft picks and future NHL stars.
Portland is not.
Moose Jaw will control this series from the first puck drop.
I can see them splitting the first two away games, maybe Jackson Unger getting lit-up in one game, then coming to the Hangar and winning three straight and finishing the series on home Ice, in Game 5.
Warriors in Five!
WHL Champs! Ed Chynoweth Cup then off to Saginaw for the Memorial Cup.