History was made twice over in the same night as a conclusion to the playoff rounds for the CHL’s constituent leagues. By completing the four game sweep against the Portland Winterhawks in the Ed Chynoweth Cup Final on May 15th, 2024, the Moose Jaw Warriors captured their first ever WHL championship title in their forty-year history. Furthermore, this set in stone that, for the first time ever, all three CHL league titles would be decided in a sweep. Let us take a look at how Moose Jaw wrapped up their historic campaign and punched their first ever ticket into the Memorial Cup.

Game 3 saw more fight from Portland than they had exhibited in the first two matchups. While they conceded a goal early to Moose Jaw D Lucas Brenton, LW Tyson Yaremko would have an answer fairly quickly. In about as fast of a course of events, C Nate Danielson (Detroit Red Wings) would get it done on the penalty kill with a clutch shorthanded goal to provide Portland their first lead of the series. Portland generally appeared to be in control of possession and did well to prevent G Jan Spunar from facing danger, though he did maintain his impressive form that he showed all postseason long, making 11 saves. Overall, Portland out-shot Moose Jaw 16-12 in the opening stanza.

D/captain Denton Mateychuk (Columbus Blue Jackets) is phenomenal at leading Moose Jaw by example and often serves as their talisman, particularly when the stakes are high. As an essential part of their power play unit, he would fulfill that role in spades in the second period, as he tallied two power play goals as bookends to the middle frame, scoring one early and one late on the man advantage. Mateychuk and his team were met with plenty of resistance, make no mistake, but Moose Jaw were able to weather the storm. Overall, Portland would lead the middle frame in SOGs yet again, 11-10. Portland appeared pretty undeterred and looked fierce despite not being afforded any power play opportunities in the second stanza, with the only penalty assessed to Moose Jaw being RW Rilen Kovacevic’s matching roughing minor with Tyson Yaremko.

There would be something of a layover due to issues with the playing surface after the second frame. Multiple efforts would have to be made to make it adequate for another twenty minutes of play. However, proceedings would carry on in a very similar manner to the ones they left off on. Ultimately, Portland’s intensity would continue into the early phases of the third period, and would pay dividends with RW Marcus Nguyen getting on the board with him yet again making a statement offensive play as he had many times throughout the playoffs. Moose Jaw would press very hard, out-shooting Portland 11-5 in the final frame of regulation. However, they were not able to solve Spunar, despite the fact that they did not make things easy for him. This game would eventually have to be resolved in an extra frame. The Warriors wasted no time testing Spunar and had at least one very solid look on him in the bonus hockey that commenced. The game would ultimately come to an end when Kovacevic pinged one off the crossbar, landing perfectly on the stick blade of C Brayden Schuurman. Schuurman would subsequently put it home and give the Warriors a 3-0 lead and a chance to close the series out at home. The three stars were awarded to Mateychuk (2 goals), Portland D Luca Cagnoni (San Jose Sharks) (1 assist, +2), and Moose Jaw C Brayden Yager (Pittsburgh Penguins) (2 assists).

In Game 4, the proceedings were yet again affected by some trouble with the Moose Jaw Events Center. In this instance, the lights went down in the later part of the first period just enough to where shadows could be a potential cause of trouble, with Moose Jaw at that point up 1-0 on the back of a power play goal by LW Martin Rysavy (drafted by Columbus Blue Jackets in 2021, left unsigned). Eventually, the green light was given to resume after some delay. Portland seemed to tighten up their defensive structure in a manner that would make their injured D Carter Sotheran (Philadelphia Flyers) proud. They additionally appeared to really want to establish a strong presence in front of the net, while also moving the puck well. Consequently, they finished the first period tied with Moose Jaw in shots, 10-10, trailing on the scoreboard but appearing confident. This confidence would pay off when C Kyle Chyzowski would tally his ninth goal of the season to tie the game at 1-1 while Portland was on the power play due to a too many men on the ice penalty assessed to Moose Jaw (which likely could’ve aroused some controversy had subsequent events gone the other way, given the missed high stick that seemingly yielded it and caused some discontent from Moose Jaw head coach Mark O’Leary). Moose Jaw C Matthew Savoie (Buffalo Sabres) had a response to take the lead back pretty quickly thereafter. However, Danielson would set up Nguyen inside the last two minutes on a terrific backdoor play that stretched the defense by getting the man on him to over-commit, like a distance shooter in an NBA game, to tie the game yet again as the second period approached its end. Ultimately, 2-2 would be the score upon the end of the middle stanza, and the second period shot totals landed at 9-8 in favor of Portland as they played what might’ve been their best period of hockey the whole series.

The teams entered something of a stalemate, not playing a very high-event third period, with only 15 combined SOGs between them (8-7 in favor of Moose Jaw). Ultimately, it would be Schuurman showing up in the clutch yet again, as he got on the board with 5:53 remaining to bring the score to 3-2 in the Warriors’ favor. The Winterhawks would give it all they had with Spunar pulled for the extra man. However, a long bomb by Rysavy turned into his second goal of the night as a timely insurance goal with 2:27 left. The Winterhawks sustained a fair amount of pressure and had an offensive zone draw after an icing by the Warriors with approximately 11 seconds. They would win the ensuing draw, but the puck would traverse back behind their net, and history would be made as the Warriors would win the game 4-2 to complete the sweep and capture their first ever WHL championship.

The only instance in which the Warriors had ever even made it to the WHL Championship prior to this year was in 2006, when they were swept by one of the greatest ever WHL teams in the form of the Vancouver Giants who would subsequently win the Memorial Cup. Winning just one game in this round would’ve made this their greatest campaign ever. Instead, they had their cake and ate it, too. They performed well in the clutch this postseason, going to overtime once against the Brandon Wheat Kings in round 1 (taking Game 2 5-4 in the extra stanza as part of a sweep), a record six times against the Saskatoon Blades in the Eastern Conference Finals (taking Games 1, 6, and 7 in bonus time in addition to their 3-1 regulation win in Game 3), and once in the previously described Game 3 against Portland. They had a flair for the dramatic and it worked for them.

One has to perhaps wonder if Sotheran having a presence in this series might’ve made a difference on the course of events. Spunar played extremely well, but he faced more high danger chances than he likely would have had the quiet linchpin of the Winterhawks been able to play. It is no secret by now that the Hawks played much better with him on the ice than off it this postseason and that he had started to show surprising promise in his D+1 year. However, make no mistake, Moose Jaw’s current team is a team of destiny. To frame this, all three of their top career postseason scorers in the form of RW Jagger Firkus (Seattle Kraken) (also the CHL’s leading point scorer in the regular season this year), Yager, and Denton Mateychuk are on their current roster. Their depth was absolutely outstanding, and it makes sense that, despite all the phenomenal talents that have played for Moose Jaw since 1984 such as Theo Fleury and Brayden Point, that this would be the one to ascend to the WHL’s mountaintop.

However, despite the many great contributors there were to this victory, only one could be selected the Most Valuable Player of this postseason. Perhaps it fit the most that their captain and catalyst was the recipient. Mateychuk was outstanding these playoffs, tallying 30 points in 20 games played, alongside a +19. The Blue Jackets prospect is most certainly the right person to be leading the charge into the Warriors’ first ever appearance at the Memorial Cup. What more does he have left in him? Could the Winnipeg native provide them with yet more hardware?