The Moose Jaw Warriors and Swift Current Broncos will add another page to their heated rivalry from the past few seasons when they meet in the second round of the WHL Playoffs, starting on Friday night at Mosaic Place.

Both teams needed seven games to get through their first round series -- the Warriors beating Prince Albert and Swift Current eliminating Regina -- and they are coming into this Eastern Conference semifinal series feeling good about where their games are sitting.

"We're really excited," said Warriors captain Brett Howden. "It was a good series last round and to end it off in a game seven in a dramatic fashion like it was, it was pretty fun for our fans, probably want to stay away from those games if we can, but we're really excited."

Moose Jaw and Swift Current finished 1-2 in the regular season standings with the Warriors taking the season series by a 4-2-1-1 margin.

The Broncos eliminated the Warriors in seven games in the first round last year, so there will be some payback on the mind for Moose Jaw, while Swift Current has some unfinished business from the regular season where they finished seven points behind the Warriors in second place.

"Obviously we're going to remember what happened (in the playoffs last year), we didn't want to go out the way that we did and nobody forgets, we learn from it,” said Howden. “It's a new season, new series, two new teams, so we're looking for a fresh start here."

In that playoff series last year, the Broncos found success by slowing down the Warriors' offensive attack. That will no doubt be the game plan for Swift Current again going into this series.

"We've got to be physical on them, they're a team that likes to play fast and with the puck and they have skilled players, so we've got to be aggressive," Broncos forward Matteo Gennaro told SwiftCurrentOnline.com on Thursday. "We can't allow them to have a lot of free time and space and that will work in our favour and hopefully set them back on their heels."

The Warriors just went through a series where that was the game plan for the opposition, but their skill eventually won out in the end, allowing Moose Jaw to take out the Raiders.

Howden said the Warriors have learned what it takes to win those battles in the playoffs, "We don't to worry too much about them, we just want to worry about us and play fast and focus on what makes our game tick," he said. "If we just worry about us, do the best that we can with what we know that we’re good at then it should be a good series."

The Broncos were led by the trio of Glenn Gawdin, Tyler Steenbergen and Aleksi Heponiemi throughout the regular season and they continued to lead the way in the first round series against Regina, combining for 11 of Swift Current's 21 goals.

Going into this series, the Warriors know that they will need to be equally hard on the Broncos' forwards to keep them in check.

"Playing them tight and they've got some skilled guys that will try to create something if you give them space, so we're going to try to limit their chances," said Warriors defenceman Brandon Schuldhaus.

He added that limiting the chances that the Broncos have to work on the power play will be key to any success for the Warriors. Swift Current scored 11 of their 21 first round goals with the man advantage.

"If we can stay disciplined and try to be good on the penalty kill, that will cut down on their goals a bit and hopefully we can out-play them 5-on-5," said Schuldhaus.

Either way that you look at it, the series will be tight checking and both teams will bring a lot of emotion to the ice for each game.

"We're ready, we know what Swift Current is like, we've played them before, so we'll be prepared for them system-wise and technically-wise, but emotionally, the team has passed the first test (in the first round against Prince Albert) and they're ready to move on," said Warriors head coach Tim Hunter.

"This series is going to be tough slogging, lots of hooking, holding and interfering to slow us down and they block a lot of shots, so we've got to get pucks through, but it's hockey and they'll compete just like we have to."

Games one and two of the first round series will go at Mosaic Place on Friday and Saturday. After that, the series shifts to the Credit Union Iplex in Swift Current for games three and four on Tuesday and Wednesday.

You can catch all the action on Country 100, the Pre-Game Show hits the air at 6:40 p.m.