The Moose Jaw Warriors have a chance to book their ticket to the second round of the WHL Playoffs on Saturday night at Mosaic Place.

The Warriors return to Moose Jaw with a three games to one lead on the Prince Albert Raiders after sweeping both games at the Art Hauser Centre to start the week.

“Both teams knew in game four that it was a must-win for either team,” said forward Justin Almeida. “They came out hard and we came out just as hard.”

Both wins in Prince Albert were character performances for the Warriors as they had to mount a big come back in game three and game four saw the Warriors hold off the Raiders for a 2-0 shutout win in large part due to the play of goalie Brody Willms.

Showing that they can win in different ways is huge for the Warriors moving forward.

“We're learning to win those close games that you have to win in playoffs, those one, two-goal games and the team has never given up and we're starting to learn,” said Almeida.

With the Raiders facing elimination going into game five on Saturday night, the Warriors know that they're going to face a desperate Prince Albert team that will be willing to do anything to send the series back up to Northern Saskatchewan.

Moose Jaw will be forced to match that effort to finish off the series.

“They don't want to go home and we need to be aware of that and recognize it starting the days in advance of the game to prepare ourselves for that mentality and show the urgency to win the game,” said Almeida.

“We want to finish the series here at home in front of our crowd, we don't want to go back there, we've got to be hungry and win every loose puck battle and get that lead first.”

Heading into game five, the Warriors know they will need to continue driving towards the net to score goals, which has been easier said than done in this series.

Prince Albert has been collapsing around goalie Ian Scott throughout the series and making those second chance opportunities on rebounds hard to come by.

“They're really good in the D zone, they box out well and they've got a lot of big bodies to play there, but we've got to play with our speed and beat those big guys with our quickness,” said Almeida.

“It's always tough to play when it's close checking, but you've got to battle through that and our game is speed, so we have to battle through those close checking games.”

The Warriors and Raiders hit the ice at Mosaic Place at 7 p.m. on Saturday night. The Pre-Game Show will be on the air to set everything up starting at 6:40 p.m. on Country 100.

There's limited tickets available for the game, check out mjwarriors.ca or the Mosaic Place Box Office to get yours.