The defending Big Six champions used home ice to their advantage to kick off the Championship series on Saturday night.

The Wawota Flyers filled the net early and held off the Yellow Grass attack in the final minutes to earn a 5-4 victory over the Wheat Kings in Game 1 of the final at the Wawota Community Forum.

The two teams emerged as two of the premier scoring clubs in the Big Six over the past two months and that showed in the opening 20 minutes.

After coming off a hard-fought series victory over the Bienfait Coalers on Wednesday night, Yellow Grass continued their hot play on the road by scoring the first two goals of the championship.

Playoff leading scorer Brendan Vertefeuille got the Wheat Kings on the board just over four minutes into play and linemate Troy Miller added to the lead halfway through the first period to give Yellow Grass the early 2-0 lead in Game 1.

But the defending champions found a way to even the score before the intermission, using the powerplay to their advantage on both markers. Captain Rob West got Wawota on the board with just under four minutes remaining and Taylor Ernst tied the game with just over a minute left to even the game at 2-2 after the 1st period.

The Flyers carried that momentum into the middle frame as Lucas Hislop put Wawota ahead 3-2 just under three minutes into the 2nd period. Then, West scored on the powerplay once again for his second of the game to put Wawota up 4-2 on Yellow Grass.

The Wheat Kings responded on a powerplay of their own just over a minute later with Semi-Final Game 5 hero Corey Koski making it a one-goal game. But just over a minute after that, Riley Riddell scored for his third point of the night to put the Flyers ahead 5-3 halfway through the game.

Wawota held that lead into the intermission as the Wheat Kings would need to find two goals in the final frame to force overtime.

Yellow Grass would get one back with 12:48 remaining in regulation as Jackson Schneider made it 5-4. However, unlike any of their many previous successful comeback attempts so far in the postseason, the Wheat Kings would be unable to beat Flyers' goaltender Guillaume Blouin another time.

Wawota held on for the 5-4 victory and now lead the Best-of-7 Big Six Final (1-0). It's the first road loss of the playoffs for Yellow Grass as they were (4-0) away from home before Game 1.

Special teams played a key role in the game, with Wawota finishing 3/6 on the powerplay and Yellow Grass finishing 1/5.

WAWOTA

Riley Riddell (1G, 2A), Taylor Ernst (1G, 2A), Brent Struble (3A)

Rob West (2G)

Lucas Hislop (1G), Devin Stewart (1A)

YELLOW GRASS

Troy Miller (1G, 1A), Dylan Frey (2A), Justin Richter (2A)

Brendan Vertefeuille (1G), Corey Koski (1G), Jackson Schneider (1G), Kyle Mryglod (1A), Matt Dries (1A)

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The series shifts back to Yellow Grass for Game 2 inside the Wheatland Communiplex.

Puck drop is at 8:00pm. Once again, catch all the action on CJ1150 with pregame at 7:55.