The Portland Winterhawks are a loss away from ending their season after losing in overtime 4-3 to the Moose Jaw Warriors and going down 3-0 in the Western Hockey League Championship Series.
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— The WHL (@TheWHL) May 15, 2024MADNESS IN MOOSE JAW!
Brayden Schuurman nets the WHOA-vertime winner and the @MJWARRIORS are one win away from their first #WHLChampionship in franchise history! pic.twitter.com/u4Apye3MeW
19-year-old Brayden Schuurman was the hero, getting the winner 2:40 into overtime. It puts the Warriors a win away from their first WHL championship in their 40th season (44th if you count their first four seasons in Winnipeg).
The loss stings the Winterhawks in that they held down pretty well the Warriors’ top players, who had been the series’ best players, especially at even strength. But it wasn’t enough to win. They couldn’t stop their top players on the power play--Moose Jaw scored the first two power play goals of the series--and the Warriors’ depth players picked up the slack at even strength with two goals including the winner. And while the Winterhawks’ depth players had a good game, including a goal from their 4th line, they still lacked a big game from their top players. It’s been 5 games since a Winterhawk has had a multipoint game.
So now Portland has to win four straight games to keep their season alive. The first hurdle is Wednesday in Game 4.
| 4:22 MJ Lucas Brenton (Rilen Kovacevic, Ethan sem*niuk) 0-1 | 20-year-old defenseman Brenton sneaks down and gets a backdoor pass from Kovacevic. |
| 6:41 POR Tyson Yaremko (Ryan Miller, Hudson Darby) 1-1 | Portland’s 4th line strikes. A great play by Miller, coming out of his zone and backhanding a pass to split the Warriors’ defense for a breakaway by Yaremko. |
| 8:34 POR (SH) Nate Danielson (James Stefan) 2-1 | Stefan with a nice shorthanded rush down the right wing. He leaves a pass for Danielson while taking Matthew Savoie out of the play, and Danielson does the rest, putting a big fake on Jackson Unger to pull him away, and then putting it into the empty net. |
| 23:37 MJ (PP) Denton Mateychuk (Matthew Savoie, Brayden Yager) 2-2 | On the power play, Mateychuk wrists one from the inside top edge of the right circle, and it hits off Tyson Jugnauth in front and goes in. |
| 37:30 MJ (PP) Denton Mateychuk (Atley Calvert, Brayden Yager) 2-3 | Again on the power play, a nice passing play by the Warriors from Yager on the right wing down low to Calvert, then back to the high slot for Mateychuk, who wrists it in through traffic. |
| 43:56 POR Marcus Nguyen (Tyson Jugnauth, Luca Cagnoni) 3-3 | Nguyen from the top back edge of the left circle shoots toward the net, it hits a Warriors defender, either Kalem Parker or Mateychuk, and goes in. |
| 62:20 MJ Brayden Schuurman (Rilen Kovacevic, Ethan sem*niuk) 3-4 | Portland gets a 2 on 1, and Kyle Chyzowski misses the net badly; the pick rims around and Moose Jaw goes the other way. sem*niuk centers to Kovacevic, whose shot hits the crossbar, but goes right to Schuurman who has an empty net for the winner. |
| Portland leads by 2+ | 0:00 |
| Portland leads by 1 | 15:03 |
| Tied | 38:32 |
| Portland trails by 1 | 8:45 |
| Portland trails by 2+ | 0:00 |
Pregame: Portland in a do-or-die situation, Moose Jaw trying to strangle the series.
1st period: It was “here we go again” with Moose Jaw hitting first on the Lucas Brenton goal. But Portland shot back with a 4th-line goal and a shorthanded goal (maybe a sign of the Warriors getting ahead of themselves?) to take the lead. Then after that, the Winterhawks were the better team, and in that stretch they got all their shot advantage, which ended 16-12. They couldn’t turn that into a goal, however. Jan Spunar had the save of the series so far in the last 10 seconds on Denton Mateychuk.
2nd period: The moment passed for Portland. A pretty even period but Denton Mateychuk’s two power play goals changed the lead to 3-2 Warriors.
3rd period: After a 20-plus minute extra delay because of ice issues, Portland struck early to tie it on Marcus Nguyen’s goal. Moose Jaw had the better looks from there, and outshot Portland 11-5. But they couldn’t score and regulation ended 3-3.
Overtime: It ended quickly. The Winterhawks will rue the 2 on 1 that Kyle Chyzowski made the wrong decision on, losing a chance to score and contributing to Moose Jaw’s chance the other way, which finished off the game.
Best vs. best: Portland held Moose Jaw’s top players as well as they could expect, but they still got the Warriors two power play goals. And Portland’s top players, apart from Nate Danielson, still aren’t making a very big impact.
Depth vs. depth: Portland’s 4th line scored a goal, but the Warriors got two including the big one.
Special teams winner: The Warriors got 2 power play goals, but gave up a rare, for them, shorthanded goal. Power plays were Moose Jaw 6, Portland 2–Winterhawks might have gotten a little of the short end of the whistles. They still haven’t scored a power play goal in the series, mainly because they haven’t gotten many power plays--a characteristic of Moose Jaw’s season in which they allowed the fewest power plays in the league.
Best team won?: It was a 50-50 game, the second of the series and the second in which Portland has lost.
Injuries/suspensions: None.
| Top 10 | Stat line | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rilen Kovacevic | MJ | 2 assists | Not recognized in the 3 stars, but he had an exceptional game, even before setting up the winner with a shot off the crossbar. |
| Brayden Schuurman | MJ | 1 goal | Right place, right time, game-winning goal. |
| Denton Mateychuk | MJ | 2 goals | Two power play goals, from close to the same spot. He was -3, because power plays don’t count in plus/minus, and he’s been on the ice for all 6 Portland goals in the series. |
| Nate Danielson | POR | 1 goal | A great move for the shorthanded goal. Playing well but not able to turn it into more points. |
| Jan Špunar | POR | 32 saves-36 shots | No real chance on three of the goals, one of which bounced off a teammate. More big saves required than Unger has had. |
| Jackson Unger | MJ | 30 saves-33 shots | He’s been solid enough. |
| Ethan sem*niuk | MJ | 2 assists | Secondary assist on the game winner. |
| Matthew Savoie | MJ | 1 assist | Still has scored in every game in his career against Portland. But he struggled a little bit more in this one. |
| Luca Cagnoni | POR | 1 assist | Played a lot better, so he might be getting healthy. |
| Marcus Nguyen | POR | 1 goal | The tying goal. |
| Other notables | Stat line | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Brayden Yager | MJ | 2 assists | 4-game point streak. |
| Jagger Firkus | MJ | 3-game point streak snapped, which you would normally think was a pathway to victory for Portland. Played decently but didn’t hit the scoreboard. | |
| James Stefan | POR | 1 assist | A nice play on the shorthanded assist. But that was his first point in 5 games and he hasn’t scored a goal in 7. A bad time to have a slump. |
| Gabe Klassen | POR | Doesn’t have an assist in his last 9 games. In his last 10 games he has 4 points. This from Portland’s lead scorer through the regular season and 2 rounds of playoffs. | |
| Ryan Miller | POR | 1 assist | A very nice assist to Yaremko, his first point since the first game of the playoffs. |
| Tyson Yaremko | POR | 1 goal | First goal in 11 games, first point in 8. |
| Atley Calvert | MJ | 1 assist | 4-game point streak. |
| Winterhawks | Warriors | |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 60-20-4-1 (.735) | 59-25-0-3 (.695) |
| Scored/allowed (diff) | 395-250 (+145) | 380-286 (+94) |
| Goals/game | 4.6 | 4.4 |
| Goals allowed/game | 2.9 | 3.3 |
| Power play | 27.3% | 30.1% |
| Penalty kill | 78.8% | 77.7% |
| Power plays for/game | 3.9 | 3.5 |
| Power plays against/game | 4.0 | 2.6 |
| Outshooting opponents | 69-15-1 | 43-40-4 |
| After 1 period | 53-15-17 | 41-23-23 |
| After 2 periods | 52-25-8 | 49-18-20 |
| Score, last 10 games | 28-30 (-2) | 36-28 (+8) |
| Score, last 20 games | 79-57 (+22) | 94-59 (+35) |
Portland Winterhawks
Obviously they need a miracle now. A tough one because they did a lot of things right. Down 3-0 it might be tough to get up for a Game 4.
Moose Jaw Warriors
One win away. And they’ll be happy to win a game where more than their top players stepped up. Their depth players are still doing a good job keeping the Winterhawks off the scoreboard.
Wednesday at Moose Jaw, 7pm PDT (Game 4)
Friday at Moose Jaw, 7pm PDT (Game 5 if necessary)
Sunday vs. Moose Jaw, time TBD (Game 6 if necessary)
Monday vs. Moose Jaw, time TBD (Game 7 if necessary)
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