MOOSEJAWTODAY.COM -- The Moose Jaw Warriors have seen the greatest season in team history come to an end.
The Western Hockey League champions gave up five goals in the second period and would go on to drop a 7-1 decision to the tournament host Saginaw Spirit in the Memorial Cup semifinal on Friday night.
As a result, the Warriors cap the Memorial Cup with a 1-3 record, with Saginaw advancing to face the OHL champion London Knights in the championship final on Sunday night.
The Warriors didn’t get off to a good start, as they were unable to get out of their own zone in the first three minutes and Saginaw would get a flurry of chances, leading to the game’s first goal.
Sebastien Gervais won a battle along the boards and got a pass out front to Ethan Hay, who would put a shot top shelf on Jackson Unger for the 1-0 lead 3:03 into the game and before the Warriors had their first shot.
That first shot looked to come moments later when Lucas Brenton appeared to score the Warriors first goal, but it was called back due to Brenton pushing Saginaw goaltender Andrew Oke into the goal with the puck.
The Warriors got one for real with 7:08 gone in the period, and it was pretty much who you’d expect. Jagger Firkus forced a turnover at the Warriors blueline and went in on a two-on-one with Brayden Yager before putting a backhand off Oke’s shoulder and in at the 7:08 mark.
The first power play of the game went to Saginaw when Brayden Schuurman cleared a bouncing puck over the glass in the Warriors zone, but Moose Jaw would successfully kill it off.
The Warriors nearly took the lead a minute into the second period when Matthew Savoie had the wide-open net to shoot at after some great puck movement in the zone, but Oke would get across for a pad save.
Not even a minute later, Saginaw took the lead. Michael Misa got a cross-zone pass off to Braden Hache at the point, and his long shot would go off a stick, off Unger’s glove and in 1:53 into the period.
The Spirit then extended their lead to 3-1 1:54 later when a rush up the ice saw Josh Bloom draw a trio of Warrior defenders to himself along the boards, leading to a backhand pass finding a wide open Owen Beck at the point, and he’d have all the the time in the world to move in close and put a shot top shelf glove side.
The Spirit kept coming, and they’d extend the lead to 4-1 on their 17th shot of the period at the 9:05 mark when Lincoln Moore got off a one-timer from a hard angle that found the back of the net.
Hay finished off a rush with another wide-open shot from the slot two minutes later, and Sebastien Gervais jammed a puck in the crease past Unger with 5:36 left in the frame to give Saginaw a 6-1 lead after two.
All told, Saginaw would score four goals in the first 10 minutes of the period and outshoot the Warriors 21-11 overall. Their fourth line did almost all the damage, as Gervais (1-2-3), Hay (2-2-4) and Moore (1-2-3) combined for 10 points in the first two periods.
Saginaw defenceman Rodwin Dionicio picked up his fourth point of the game when he scored just over a minute into the third to make it 7-1.
That would close out scoring in the contest, and Saginaw was off to the Memorial Cup final.
Unger turned aside 30 shots, while Oke had 22 stops for Saginaw.
The Memorial Cup championship game between the Spirit and London takes place Sunday at 5:30 p.m. and will be broadcast on TSN.
