Ice 5 Warriors 4
MOOSE JAW, Sask. — The Moose Jaw Warriors never stopped fighting, but they were unable to get out the early hole they dug themselves in both the final game, and the series, with the Kootenay Ice.
Matt Fraser scored three goals, including the winner, as the Ice won their Western Hockey League playoff series against the Warriors with a 5-4 victory Sunday.
After trailing 3-0 after 15 minutes, the Warriors tried valiantly to mount a comeback, but fell short as the Ice won the Eastern Conference best-of-seven quarter-final in six games.
It was the final hockey game to be played in the Moose Jaw Civic Centre.
“Our start obviously wasn’t what we wanted,” said Warriors head coach Dave Hunchak. “That’s a big hole to climb out of, especially against a quality hockey team like Kootenay.”
Hunchak conceded that the Warriors inconsistent play game to game and even shift to shift was their undoing in the series
“Inconsistency throughout the game did us in,” he said of Game 6 specifically. It’s frustrating. I felt — and still feel — we were very well-prepared to play this team.”
The Ice got off to a big start as Brayden McNabb found a loose puck in the slot and had the time to pick the top corner 1:36 into the game. The Warriors picked up their play after the goal, but on a four-on-four the Ice scored twice later in the period.
McNabb continued to take over the game as he did a full lap of the Warriors zone before later weaving through the Warriors’ defence to feed Max Reinhart, who scored from the seat of his pants.
Just over a minute later Reinhart turned provider as he fed Matt Fraser with a great pass to give the Ice a 3-0 lead.
The Warriors fought back, as Moose Jaw’s Brett Lyon scored less than a minute after the Ice went ahead 3-0.
The Warriors scored on their first power play of the game in the second period when Quinton Howden buried his own rebound to cut the Ice lead to 3-2.
Fraser buried a big rebound for his second of the game to put the Ice back up two goals. The Ice tried to finish the Warriors off, but Warrior goalie Thomas Heemskerk stopped Cody Eakin on a breakaway less than a minute after Fraser’s goal and 20 seconds later sprawled to reach his stick behind him to deny what looked like a sure goal by Steele Boomer.
The Warriors second power play got them back to within a goal as Dylan Hood was able to walk in front and beat Nathan Lieuwen.
Fraser’s third goal — once again on a feed from Reinhart — restored the Ice’s two-goal lead.
Once again the Warriors fought back as Sam Fioretti scored for the home side with 8:03 left. The Ice thought they had finally finished the Warriors off when Joey Leach scored into an empty net with 34.7 seconds left, but the play was offside.
Lieuwen finished with 20 saves, while Heemskerk stopped 26 shots.
Kootenay will play either Saskatoon or Red Deer in the next round, depending on the outcome of the series between the Medicine Hat Tigers and the Brandon Wheat Kings.
Blades end Raiders
PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. — Matej Stransky scored 4:24 into overtime as the Saskatoon Blades edged the Prince Albert Raiders 2-1 to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinal in Western Hockey League action Sunday.
Stransky also added an assist on Brent Benson’s second period goal for the Blades, who won the series 4-2. Antoine Corbin opened the scoring 2:43 into the first period for Prince Albert.
Steven Stanford made 31 saves for Saskatoon, while Jamie Tucker stopped 41 shots for the Raiders.