It’s my Parting Shot for the third and final part of my preview of the Western Hockey League’s playoffs…..

Today is the day, playoffs return to the W-H-L for the first time since May of 2019. I’ve briefly handicapped seven of the eight opening round, Conference quarter-finals…it’s time to look at the Saskatoon Blades-Moose Jaw Warriors set!

This is the series with the smallest difference in the standings between two teams as Moose Jaw finished fourth in the Eastern Conference, and claimed home-ice advantage in the best-of-seven by one point over the Bridge City Bunch.

One thing that shouldn’t matter, especially to the Warriors, is the regular-season series where the Blue and Gold won six of eight meetings, including two of four at Mosaic Place without losing at SaskTel Centre.

What might matter…injuries! Both teams might be without their captains and, arguably, their best defencemen. Aidan De La Gorgendiere of the Blades has had season-ending shoulder surgery while there are whispers that Moose Jaw’s Daemon Hunt is done for the season as well with a Lower Body injury. We won’t know about more suspected roster deletions, at least to start the series, until the line-up cards are filled out for Game 1!

Saskatoon will win this series if they make Denton Mateychuk work hard for his expected 30-plus minutes per game on defence for the Warriors, plus make him and veteran Ryder Korczak pass the puck before they want to on the rush, and continue to account for them without the puck. The Blades will also win if they can re-discover their power play prowess from the first 50 games of the regular-season! Since I think they can do that, I’m picking Saskatoon to advance in six games!

As for who I see still standing in six weeks or so time, I think Edmonton is the most complete Eastern Conference team while I believe there is a reason Everett finished first in the Western Conference…so long as they are healthy! In the end, I’m picking the Oil Kings to win the Ed Chynoweth Cup championship over the Silvertips!

Let’s go!!

That’s my Parting Shot. I’m Les Lazaruk…..