Photo courtesy of Scott Roblin

By Scott Roblin

Goal Explosion

No mercy from Tigers in 9-1 beat down on ‘Pink in the Rink’ night

Oct 12, 2019 | 11:04 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Entering his first true season on the Medicine Hat Tigers’ top defensive pairing, blueliner Daniel Baker has taken the increase role in stride.

The step up in minutes has seen his offensive game take a step forward as well and on Saturday, Baker broke out for the biggest performance of his WHL career thus fare.

Baker scored his second and third goals of the season within the game’s first five minutes, setting the stage for a 9-1 thrashing of the visiting Red Deer Rebels on ‘Pink in the Rink’ night.

“I didn’t think we had a great game against Winnipeg, I thought we needed to play better,” said Tigers head coach Willie Desjardins. “I thought the lines were hungry tonight, I thought lots of guys were jumping. I just think we were ready tonight and I think we caught Red Deer at a good time.”

Baker needed just 33 seconds to break open the scoring with a seeing-eye point shot that fooled Rebels goaltender Ethan Anders.

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Red Deer’s Josh Tarzwell answered right back with a point-blank goal just over a minute later to tie the game at 1-1, but that would serve as Medicine Hat’s lone black eye of the night.

Just past the four minute mark of the first, Baker let another shot from the point go that turned the goal light red for his first multi-goal performance of his junior career.

“It felt unbelievable,” said Baker. “I think it was pretty much from the same spot. So, I just picked a spot and had a good screen. So, it was good.”

Rookie Caleb Willms was able to make it a 3-1 lead for Medicine Hat with 7:14 left in the opening frame, going top shelf on Anders with a laser beam of a wrist shot for his second goal of the year.

Medicine Hat’s Cole Clayton and Red Deer’s Ethan Rowland turned up the temperature on the game just under seven minutes into the second period, dropping the gloves for a 10-bell tilt.

A subsequent holding the stick penalty would send Tigers forward Corson Hopwo to the box, however it was the Rebels getting bit. Captain James Hamblin received a feed from Tyler Preziuso and buried his fifth of the season to give the Tigers a 4-1 lead.

Before the end of the period, Ryan Chyzowski and Cole Sillinger were able to put goals past Anders and see Medicine Hat take a 6-1 stranglehold on the game after 40 minutes.

Red Deer elected to end Anders’ night at the intermission with six goals allowed on 29 shots against, unable to repeat his 39-save performance against the Tigers one week prior.

Sillinger’s night wasn’t done there however, as he leapt on his own rebound 3:28 into the third to beat Byron Fancy for his second goal of the evening.

By netting his seventh goal and 11th point of the season, the 16-year-old Sillinger moved into a tie for the WHL rookie scoring lead.

“I knew this summer was going to be a big jump for me, I had to work extremely hard for that,” said Sillinger. “I haven’t really been looking at the scoring races. I just try to play my own game, chip in with my linemates, and help the team win.”

Canalta Centre fans had their loudest cheer of the night with five minutes left in the game however, as a scrap broke out between Elijah Brown and Chris Doughlas an elbow to the head of Nick McCarry.

“Oh god, I blacked out hard,” said Brown. “But, I do remember to my right seeing McCarry just get absolutely blown up out of nowhere. I saw Douglas in my peripheral and I looked at him like, ‘I got to do something, I got to stand up for Nicky.’”

Brown earned a massive cheer after taking down Douglas and leaving the ice, notching the first fight of his 168-game WHL career.

“That was different yeah,” said Brown. “The boys were pretty fired up, I was pretty happy. The roar was nice, it was awesome. I never thought I would do it, but I was good to get the first one though.”

Baker had a chance at his first hat-trick of his WHL career with a late 5-on-3 powerplay, however he elected to slide the puck over to Nick McCarry for the easy 8-1 tap in and his third point of the evening.

Even after ringing a shot off the cross-bar moments earlier, Baker said it was a good night for his pairing with Clayton assisting on both of his goals.

“Playing with Cowboy [Cole Clayton] it’s been really easy,” he said. “We played lots together last year, so we have some good chemistry. I think we’re rolling right now, so we’ll try to keep it going.”

For extra measure, Willms capped the night off with his second of the game in the final minute to bring Saturday’s contest to a merciful end.

Medicine Hat’s fourth line of Willms, McCarry and Baxter Anderson combined for six points on the night, something that didn’t go unnoticed by Desjardins.

“I thought [Baxter] Anderson’s line had a big night tonight for us,” said Desjardins. “I thought they played well. Willms has a great shot, those are high, high end shots so it was good to see. Nick [McCarry] worked hard, he deserved to get something tonight after how hard he worked.”

Mads Søgaard was able to enjoy a quiet night between the pipes for Medicine Hat, only allowing one goal on 20 shots for his fourth win of the season.

Winning their last three games in a row with points in their last five, the 7-2-1 Tigers are tied for first place in the Central Division with the Edmonton Oil Kings with 15 points.

Saturday’s win also marked the fourth game this year the Tigers have scored at least five goals, averaging 5.25 goals per game during their recent home stand.

“The start of the year we weren’t scoring at all, there was nothing happening,” said Desjardins. “Now we have guys going to the net better, we’re quick on our rushes. So, it’s good to see some things going in.”

Medicine Hat wraps up their five-game home stand on Tuesday night, welcoming the streaking Saskatoon Blades to town with a 7:00 pm puck drop.