Photo courtesy of Jay Wallace

By Scott Roblin

Hamblin's Hatty

Hamblin records first career hat-trick in 6-3 beat down of Victoria

Nov 2, 2019 | 11:42 PM

VICTORIA, B.C. – Medicine Hat Tigers captain has accomplished a lot over his lengthy WHL career, however one accolade that continued to elude the 20-year-old was scoring three times in one game.

On Saturday, Hamblin finally recorded his first hat-trick in 276 WHL regular season games.

Hamblin netted two goals on the power play and a key insurance marker late in the third period for the Tigers, helping the boys in orange and black to a 6-3 win over the host Victoria Royals.

Kicking off a five-game road swing in British Columbia, the Tigers wasted no time with Ryan Chyzowski netting his 10^th goal of the season just 46 seconds after puck drop.

In a penalty-filled affair, Medicine Hat defenceman Eric Van Impe dropped his gloves for the first time in his WHL career near the end of the first period with Royals defender Nolan Jones.

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Midway through the second period it was a familiar face tying up the game for the Royals, as ‘Uncle Gary’ himself Gary Haden scored five-hole on a breakaway against his old club to knot up the score at 1-1.

Corson Hopwo was able to give Medicine Hat the lead again less than a minute later with his first goal of the season, albeit following a look at replay by the officials.

Victoria’s Keanu Derungs made it a 2-2 game with 6:07 left in the second period on the power play, however Hamblin countered with a power play goal of his own to put the Tigers ahead 3-2 at the intermission.

Medicine Hat’s offence found its stride early in the third period with Parker Gavlas getting his first goal as a member of the Tigers, before Hamblin netted his second of the evening on the man advantage just a few minutes later.

Hamblin completed his long-awaited hat-trick with 4:53 remaining in the third to give Medicine Hat a comfortable 6-2 lead as the clock began trickling down at Save-On-Foods Memorial Arena.

River Fahey was able to beat Mads Søgaard with a tipped shot late in the game, but the damage was done with the Tigers winning their second game in a row with a six-goal performance.

Along with Hamblin’s three-goal night, it was Brett Kemp standing out on the scoreboard by assisting on all three of his captain’s goals to bring his point total on the year to 19 points in 15 games.

He now sits tied for 11^th in WHL scoring alongside Chyzowski, while Hamblin leads the team with 20 points in 15 games which is good enough for a tie for eighth in the league.

Søgaard’s final stat line came out to 27 saves on 30 shots against for his sixth victory of the 2019-20 campaign, while it was a rough night tending net for Victoria’s Shane Farkas with six goals allowed on 35 shots.

Registering their 10^th victory of the season with Saturday’s win, the 10-4-1-0 Tigers are third in the Central Division with 21 points and trail Lethbridge by four points for second place.

Medicine Hat’s western road swing stretches through British Columbia’s lower mainland on Sunday, heading to Langley to face the defending Western Conference champion Vancouver Giants at 5:00 pm.