The Moose Jaw Warriors’ final round-robin game of the 2024 Memorial Cup was against the QMJHL Champions Drummondville Voltigeurs. Both teams dropped their first two games of the tournament, which meant Tuesday’s game served as an elimination game.
On a late shorthanded goal by Aiden Ziprick and an empty-netter by Yager Firkus, Moose Jaw won 5-3 to face the loser of the London Knights and Saginaw Spirt game on Wednesday evening.
Unfortunately, the remarkable season for the Voltigeurs came to an end.
The Warriors came out firing and had six of the first seven shots before the game reached the first media timeout.
Moose Jaw’s forecheck was causing fits for Drummondville as the Voltigeurs turned the puck over several times.
For the second straight game, the Warriors opened the scoring. On Tuesday it was a three-way passing play between Atley Calvert, Lynden Lakovic, and Vojtech Port. An Anaheim Ducks prospect, Port corralled the puck on his forehand and beat Drummondville’s Riley Mercer, who had to slide to his left on the second pass.
Late in the second period, the Voltigeurs hit the post, and Jackson Unger stopped all 11 shots sent his direction.
After only one goal was scored in the first 20 minutes, the teams combined for four in the middle frame.
On Monday, the Warriors’ power play went 0-for-4, but the puck movement was much better on their first opportunity on Tuesday. Denton Mateychuk surveyed the ice and sent a pass to Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Brayden Yager at the right faceoff circle. The 2005-born forward faked a shot, freezing the Voltigeurs’ defense and Mercer, before sending a puck across the penalty killer’s box to a wide-open Jagger Firkus for a power-play goal.
Following the game against London, O’Leary wanted to see more from his power-play unit, and his players responded. “I thought, even before we scored the power-play goal, I just thought it looked like us. It was a little more urgent, just in good spots, hungry to make a difference in the game. That’s all you can ask for. It is nice when you cash in. Even coming out of that, if we didn’t score, it would’ve brought a little momentum that we would’ve felt good about.”
Just over seven minutes later, Moose Jaw used its transition game to score its third of the night. Mateychuk tried to pass the puck across the ice, but it took a deflection right back to him. With Mercer going to his left, the Columbus Blue Jackets defenseman had the rest of the net to shoot at.
With the assist on the Firkus goal, and his third tally of the Memorial Cup, the WHL Defenseman of the Year moved into the tournament lead in points with six.
The three-goal advantage only lasted 2:03 before Justin Côté converted on an odd-man rush of his own with teammates Luke Woodworth and Marc-Olivier Beaudry. Then, 57 seconds later, Peter Repcik fired a shot from the wall by Unger.
For the first time in the tournament, the Warriors went into the second intermission with a lead and were not forced to chase the game in the third period.
“The second half of the game, it just looked like one team played last night and the other one didn’t,” O’Leary said. “That is why it is important to cash in while you have the opportunities. Our start was real important, thought we played excellent the first half of the game. It really gave us the opportunity to be there in the end,”
The Voltigeurs came out firing everything they could at Unger. On their eighth shot of the period, and right off the faceoff, Alexis Gendron, a Philidelphia Flyers prospect, won a race to a loose puck and beat Unger high to the glove, tying the game at three.
Drummondville continued to pile on the pressure, peppering Unger with shot after shot, but the Calgary, Alberta, native stood tall.
“Throughout the game you get in a groove seeing that many shots. When you get past the 25-shot mark, you know your game, you feel good in the crease,” Unger said.
Then, with 3:23 left in the game, Firkus took a roughing penalty as he pushed a Drummondville skater back into the bench as he was trying to come on the ice.
O’Leary’s penalty killers hopped over the boards and went to work. Playing to their structure, they survived the first minute of the Voltigeurs’ power play. Following a clear, the Warriors pressured up the ice, and as they have shown all year, won a puck battle in the offensive zone.
Mateychuk emerged from a group of three Drummondville skaters and spotted fellow defenseman Ziprick, who was arriving late into the zone.
Despite only one goal to his name so far in his WHL career, the 6-foot-1, 185-pound blue liner from Russell, Manitoba, shot low to his right, beating Mercer for a remarkable shorthanded goal.
Ziprick was smiling from ear to ear in the postgame press conference.
When asked to describe the moment and the goal, he said, “It is pretty special. Obviously, with a big tournament right now. Obviously, a close game, and we needed a goal. To get that one for the guys is just huge for me. I’m going to remember that for the rest of my life. I just followed up the play and saw there was a scrum in the corner there. I thought we might come out of the puck, and obviously we did. Denton made a good pass to me, and the rest I kind of blacked out.”
“It couldn’t happen to a better guy,” O’Leary said of Ziprick getting the game-winning goal. “He’s a popular teammate. He works hard every day and has a smile on his face. He’s had a lot of looks this year. When he scored his first one, a lot of happy teammates, and it was no different tonight. That is what the playoffs are all about different guys in different moments. We talk about it all the time about being ready it could be the most important of the game where the puck is on your stick. Tonight, it was Ziprick, and it was a big one.”
In a drastic turn of events, Moose Jaw led with 1:34 to play.
Against Saginaw and London, the Warriors finished the game with the extra attacker, but on Tuesday, they faced the opposite. Not only did they deny everything sent their way, but they scored into the empty net when Matthew Savoie picked up a rebound and skated a 2-on-1 rush with Yager. Ultimately, the Buffalo Sabres prospect deferred to Yager for the empty-net goal, putting a final stamp on a tremendous game.
The way Moose Jay played the 5-on-6 situation was nearly flawless.
O’Leary gave credit to how his five-man unit handled the situation with pressure and hard work. “Whether it is a penalty kill, which five versus six is no different. It has to be work. We know what it is like on the other side when you’re trying to make plays, and you’re under constant pressure. We want to do the same, and we had lots of guys, I think, that look forward to those opportunities playing in big moments, wanting to make a difference in the game. We saw that tonight. We talked about the fatigue that was there, but I just thought we found another gear there with the goalie out and found a way.”
Unger was named the star of the game as he turned aside 49-of-52 Drummondville shots.
“I just think he sometimes seems the more workload he gets, the better he gets. That is just competitiveness. Tonight, we certainly needed him with over 50 shots, whatever it was. You talk about fatigue; if anybody wants to talk fatigue, it is Jackson Unger. He’s played a lot of hockey games this year. He saw a lot of pucks, but again, he found another gear when it got hard. I’m just real proud of the effort. He looked calm, he looked cool, and even when they are shooting the puck and playing off shots, and it seemed a little bit chaotic, he played calm, and he competed in the crease,” O’Leary said.
Now, the Warriors are off on Wednesday and Thursday before they play their next elimination game in a rematch against either London or Saginaw.
O’Leary used the word ‘rest’ when asked what the plan will be over the next two days. “Practice at this time of the year is not really (needed). We said it yesterday: the X’s and the O’s, we know how we need to play. We can look after those types of things over video and conversations. Right now, it is just about being around your teammates and enjoying the Memorial Cup for what it is. We talked about it before the tournament. You are going to remember these big games, these big moments, but you’re also going to remember the time off the ice with your teammates and enjoying this whole thing.”
