Saskatchewan’s last surviving entry in the WHL playoffs saw its post-season come to an end Friday.
The Moose Jaw Warriors lost 6-3 to the host Winnipeg Ice, which won a best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinal in five games.
Moose Jaw scored the game’s first two goals, but the Ice scored the next four to take command.
Matthew Savoie scored twice for Winnipeg, which got its other goals from Zachary Benson, Cole Muir, Conor Geekie and Mikey Milne (into an empty net). Daniel Hauser stopped 23 shots in the Ice goal.
Ryder Korczak, Thomas Tien and Atley Calvert scored for the Warriors, which got 22 saves from Carl Tetachuk.
Winnipeg advances to the Eastern Conference final against the Edmonton Oil Kings, who swept the Red Deer Rebels in the other semifinal. The best-of-seven final is slated to begin May 20 in Winnipeg.
The Ice finished first in the conference’s regular-season standings with a 53-10-3-2 record and 111 points, seven more than the second-place Oil Kings (50-14-3-1). But Edmonton had a 3-1-0-0 record against Winnipeg in the teams’ four regular-season meetings.