Blades season ends with heartbreaking game seven overtime loss to Warriors

They call it sudden death overtime for a reason, and game seven of the Western Hockey League’s (WHL) east final between the Saskatoon Blades and Moose Jaw Warriors delivered just that.

A seven game series that saw six games go to overtime - making WHL history - ended in heartbreak for Blades fans, and elation for Warriors fans after Moose Jaw scored 36 seconds into overtime for a 3-2 win and 4-3 series victory.

"I'm just really sad," said Blades coach Brennan Sonne. "We had a staff, a group, a team of players that just worked so hard to be in this position. Completely dedicated, all in, and just really sad that the result didn't go our way."

Lynden Lakovic's goal less than three minutes into overtime will send the Moose Jaw Warriors to their first WHL Championship final in almost 20 years, it was his second overtime winner in as many games.

"This goal doesn't happen if I don't score the one in game six," said Lakovic. "Our coach, he's always saying throw it on net, something good might happen. I saw Atley [Calvert] driving there, and I thought he was kind of tied up. So I thought I'd just throw it there, maybe a greasy rebound would happen."

The Warriors opened the scoring in the first period, putting the home crowd on pins and needles. A long point shot was deflected in front by Ethan Semeniuk, off the post, off the pad of Blades goalie Evan Gardner, and in.

It wasn't until the midway point of the second period when heart-on-his-sleeve forward Easton Armstrong found a loose puck in front, fooling Jackson Unger with a backhand shot through traffic to tie things up at 1-1.

With five previous games being tied after 60 minutes, everyone in the building had a feeling this would be a 1-1 tie after regulation. However, the Warriors would force a turnover, finding Jagger Firkus all alone in front to make it 2-1 Moose Jaw with less than 10 minutes to go in regulation time.

After more end-to-end hockey that saw both goalies make game-saving stops, it was Vaughn Watterodt's snapshot that blew the lid off Sasktel Centre, tying it at 2-2 with three minutes remaining.

Mere moments into the extra frame, Lynden Lakovic scored to send Moose Jaw home with the WHL Eastern Conference Championship Trophy, and a chance for the city's first ever WHL Championship.

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"It would mean everything," said Lakovic. "This city has done so much for us, we're a community-owned team and all the funding is from them, so they deserve this."

While the Blades wanted to keep playing hockey, head coach Brennan Sonne said his team gave everything they had.

"I thought we played really hard tonight," he said. "I thought we put ourselves in a good position, we left it all out there."

The deciding game at Sasktel Centre saw more than 13,200 fans wearing either team's colours.

"The crowds have been awesome, both home and away," said Warriors captain Denton Mateychuk, who was recently awarded the Bill Hunter Memorial Trophy for top defenseman in the WHL. "You hear the 10 or 11 thousand people every time there's a play or a goal, and I think the atmosphere is really awesome. It's a fun part of the game."

While the series was enough to turn his hair grey, Warriors coach Mark O'Leary said fatigue is all in your mind as they get ready to head to Portland for the first two games of the WHL Championship.

"I really haven't been around anything like it," he said of the historic six-overtime series. "As for the fatigue side of things, maybe it will kick in tomorrow a little bit, but I think that's just mentality. You're tired if you tell yourself you're tired, and you're ready to go if you tell yourself you're ready to go. I know we'll be ready to go on Friday."

For Sonne, it's the final game with the graduating players, captain Trevor Wong, assistant captain Charlie Wright and forward Easton Armstrong. While the on-ice result wasn't how they'd planned it, he's proud of the people walking out the dressing room door.

"I'm the hockey coach of a junior team, so the hockey side is obviously the main focus," said Sonne, who was the 2022-2023 Dunc McCallum Trophy winner for WHL coach of the year. "But me and our staff, ownership, management, our priority is helping young men grow into being great citizens, husbands, fathers. And I will say this group, these 20-year-olds, the guys graduating from this program are the best of the best citizens. And they're going to be the leaders of our society in the future."