A Warrior victory to cap off the regular season ended the eight game season series between the teams with the Broncos going 6-1-0-1 vs Moose Jaw this season.
This game was by far the worst officiated game of the eight game set. Referees Russ Berdussco and Cory Maclean had a tough night. The capacity crowd of 2865were all over them for the most of the night.
The Warriors scored four goals on the powerplay, one was 5-on-3.
The Warriors were much better tonight than they were last night as Warriors Head Coach Dave Hunchak commented in our pre-game show that they "played not to get hurt " in Friday night's 4-3 loss.
The Broncos flooded the Warriors goal with all sorts of shots and opportunities in the third cutting the deficit from 5-2 to 5-4 on goals by Keegan Dansereau and Geordie Wudrick's 20th.
The Warriors held on to the win although the Broncos thought they tied it in the final seconds only to have the goal waved off because referee Maclean called an interference penalty away from the play negating the goal.
Shots in the third were 20-3 Broncos.... and three goal posts.
Moose Jaw came out and tried to get it started as both Frazer Mclaren and Jordan Knackstedt looked to get into scraps off the opening faceoff . A clear message the Warriors meant business.
The rough stuff settled down in the 2nd and then boiled over at the end of the game as Frazer Mclaren and Zack Smith fought at the final buzzer.
The Warriors showed little class leaving the ice. They seemed to be really celebrating the 8th seed.... Terrance Dellorande led the way in the postgame taunts. As Ryan and I have said a few times... "act like you've won before".
Moose Jaw will meet Calgary in round one.
Good luck to the Warriors and Head Coach Dave Hunchak.
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It's the Regina Pats in round one. It was announced at the I-plex post-game and the fans gave out a pretty good cheer.
Game one will be Friday night.
I put out the notion of the Broncos being the underdogs in the opening round to Assistant Coach Tim Kehler in the post-game show. Tim wasn't buying it. He feels there are really no underdogs in the opening round. With the Pats being the division champs the Broncos on paper will be deemed the underdogs even if they won the season series 4-2.
There isn't very many players left from last year's playoff battle which went to Regina in six games. The Broncos will have 12 players who saw action in the series while the Pats will have by my count 8.
Last year's series involved the media of both respective cities. The Broncos even using an article in the paper as motivation for a game two win after a lacklustre performance in the opening game. The Broncos were blasted in the article as Regina LP pretty much awarding the series to the Pats in three games. With the Regina Leaderpost and CTV Regina pumped into southwest Saskatchewan, I'm expecting our fans to have to sift through it all once again.
Pats broadcaster and fellow blogger Rod Pedersen was the verbal target of several Bronco fans. Rod resorted to Vaseline as a tactic to try and keep the fans from pounding on his media box from below when the Broncos scored. Could we see that flare up again? For the record, they pound on my box too. And they don't care if its Regina or Chilliwack we're playing. They just want to make some noise.
This match-up will have a feeling of good guys against the bad guys (from a Bronco perspective anyways). The Broncos playing the role of the cowboys in the white hats taking on the big bad villains of the conference in the black hats and handkerchiefs.
A good ol' western shootout is in the making. It should be fun.
1 comment:
McLaren, yeah thats his " m/o". I dont think he meant business, he was just upset no one bought his Star Trek replica jersey. Spock Mclaren was Lang's worst acquisition as a gm since he's been there. Its going to be nice to see Spock get swept in the first round, as Perricone is burned out. Theres no way MJ will win this series.
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