Warriors Sweep Tigers; Oil Kings Advance Past Wheat Kings

The legend of Brayden Point continued to grow on Wednesday night at the Medicine Hat Arena as 16-year-old from Calgary, Alberta sent the Moose Jaw Warriors into the WHL Eastern Conference Final with a 4-3 overtime win, giving them a four-game sweep of the Shaunavon's Kale Kessy and the Medicine Hat Tigers.

Kessy was hurt throughout this series and didn't play.

Point scored his fifth goal of the playoffs and second overtime winner -- he also scored the double overtime goal to beat Regina in Game 4 of the first round -- 8:50 into the first extra frame to give the tribe the win.  Moose Jaw was on the power play for the goal after Tigers captain Cole Grbavac was sent off for grabbing Sam Fioretti's stick out of his hands when his broke.

The Warriors had to come-from-behind for the win after Medicine Hat opened game with their best period of the series in the first.  Moose Jaw got on the board first though, just 1:43 into the game on a perfect passing play between James Henry and Point, which Henry finished off for his fourth of the playoffs, but the period was all Tigers after that.  James Bettauer and Boston Leier each picked up goals on back-to-back five-on-three power plays, as the Warriors got into their first bit of penalty trouble in the series.  Bettauer added his second of the period, on the power play again, to give the Tigers a 3-1 lead after one.

Moose Jaw got off to another hot start in the second period as Kenton Miller pulled the tribe within one on the power play, but that would be the only time Moose Jaw beat Tyler Bunz in the frame, despite throwing 18 shots on the Tigers goalie.

The Tigers continued to hold on to their slim 3-2 lead all the way until the 4:09 mark of the third period, when Fioretti snapped the puck past Bunz to even the game up at 3-3.  Despite a flurry of chances for both teams late in the game, neither goalie wanted to give an inch.

Luke Siemens had to be sharp in the overtime period and made a game-saving toe stop just minutes into the extra frame to set the stage for Point's heroics not too much later.

Siemens made 28 saves in his best game of the playoffs so far.  Bunz was busy again, finishing with 43 saves on 47 shots in the loss.

The Warriors will face the Edmonton Oil Kings in the Eastern Conference Final starting next Friday, April 20th at Rexall Place.  Games 3 and 4 will be in Moose Jaw on April 24th and 25th.  Tickets will go on sale at the Mosaic Place box office at 11:00am Thursday morning.

Elsewhere, former Bronco Jordan Peddle and the Edmonton Oil Kings shut out Brandon 6-0 to sweep the Wheat Kings.

Other Wednesday Scores:
Portland 4 v 5 Kamloops (Winterhawks lead 3-1)
Tri-City 2 v 1 Spokane (Americans lead 2-1)