Lynden Lakovic plays overtime hero as Warriors defeat Blades to advance to final

For the first time since the 2005-’06 season, the Moose Jaw Warriors will have a chance to play for the Ed Chynoweth Cup.

Lynden Lakovic scored the overtime winner for the second straight game, finding the back of the net just 36 seconds into the extra frame to win the Eastern Conference Championship series for the Warriors with a 3-2 victory.

“Atley (Calvert) made a hell of a play tonight just chipping it,” said Lakovic when asked about how it felt to score the winning goal.

“Our coach (Mark O’Leary) is always saying throw it on net and something good might happen.”

THE @MJWARRIORS ARE HEADING TO THE #WHLCHAMPIONSHIP SERIES FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 2006!#WHLPlayoffs | #FeedingtheFuture pic.twitter.com/roZCmAXdmO

— The WHL (@TheWHL) May 8, 2024

Game 7 was a prime example of how the Warriors’ ability to punch back helped them find a way to win yet another tight hockey game.

The Warriors looked poised to win Game 7 2-1 as the clock ticked down into the final minutes of the third period, but Vaugn Watterodt’s wrist shot with 3:07 remaining tied the game at 2-2 – nearly taking the roof off SaskTel Centre in the process.

Vaughn Watterodt isn't done and neither are the @BladesHockey!🤯

Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Championship is officially tied again!#WHLPlayoffs | #FeedingtheFuture pic.twitter.com/neV3p8IUWv

— The WHL (@TheWHL) May 8, 2024

O’Leary said despite giving up the late goal to Saskatoon, there wasn’t any panic in his locker room.

“It was calm. At the end of the day, there’s nothing that I need to say to inspire this group,” O”Leary stated.

“This time of year it’s just all reminders. You make little tweaks here and there in terms of what the other team is doing, but it’s about us and playing a certain way and circumstances don’t change that.”

“Our (ability to) punch back, I think, is the best in the league,” Lakovic said.

“We do it for each other. We don’t want this to end. We’ve built a family here and I think the city of Moose Jaw really deserves this. They’ve never won a WHL championship in their history, and I think our time is now.”

The Warriors opened the scoring in Game 7 when Kalem Parker’s point shot deflected off Ethan Semeniuk to give them a 1-0 lead with a little over seven minutes remaining in the opening frame.

In the second, the Blades finally broke through goaltender Jackson Unger when Easton Armstrong’s backhand shot found the back of the net to tie things up a 1-1.

Throughout the second and third, Unger made some terrific saves to prevent the Blades from taking the lead. After a flurry of Saskatoon chances in the third period, the Warriors headed down the ice the other way and pressured defenceman Ben Saunderson, which led to him turning over the puck.

Brayden Yagger scooped that puck up and found a wide-open Jagger Firkus in front of the net to give the Warriors a 2-1 lead with less than 10 minutes remaining in the third period.

According to the WHL, this was the first series in the modern history of the league to feature six playoff games going to overtime.

O’Leary said he’s never experienced a series quite like this one.

“I’ve never been around anything like it, to be honest,” he said. “I think the fatigue side of things – it will kick in maybe tomorrow a little bit, but I think that’s just the mentality – you’re tired if you tell yourself you’re tired, and you’re ready to go if you’re ready to go. I know we’ll be ready to go on Friday.”

Game 1 of the WHL Championship Series will begin in Portland on Friday, and Game 2 is scheduled for Saturday.

The series will shift to Moose Jaw for Games 3, 4 and 5 next week. Tickets for those games will go on sale Friday at 10 a.m.

Moose Jaw’s players and staff are all excited to have an opportunity to play in front of their fans one last time this season, and hope to bring the community their first Ed Chynoweth Cup.

“It’s unbelievable. If you saw the sendoff that we had heading to Saskatoon, I know it caught the players off guard. We talk about how much it means to Moose Jaw and the support we get throughout the years,” O’Leary said. “To see it now and how excited they are or the celebrations here, that’s what makes it special.”

For the Blades, their season ends in heartbreak, as many players on this roster will enter the next phase of their hockey careers and will likely never skate on the ice with each other again.

On one side it’s pure jubilation, on the other it’s heartbreak.

What a series.

Thank you! @MJWARRIORS @BladesHockey pic.twitter.com/i1YGdpnd2L

— The Green Zone (@GreenZoneSK) May 8, 2024

“I’m just really sad,” said Blades head coach Brennan Sonne when asked if he could sum up his emotions from Game 7. “We had a team of players that just worked so hard to be in this position and be completely dedicated all-in and (I’m) just really sad the result didn’t go our way.”

“It’s a massively special group,” Sonne added. “They love each other, they love the Blades, they love this city and they put everything they had into it.”

“I think as a team we’re very proud of ourselves,” said Blades captain Trevor Wong, who was emotional when speaking with the media. “It could’ve gone either way. One bad bounce (and) our season is over just like that. We’re very proud of the way we pushed back, played the game and very proud of what we accomplished this season. There’s not heads hanging, we’re very proud of ourselves.”

Sonne said he feels like his team played as well as they could, and they put themselves in a good position to win Game 7.

“I thought we played really hard tonight,” he said. “We left it all out there.”

The Blades are expected to clear out their lockers on Wednesday.