Photo courtesy of Randy Feere / Medicine Hat Tigers

By Scott Roblin

Medicine Hat Tigers

Tigers double up WHL-leading Raiders for weekend sweep

Nov 23, 2019 | 11:09 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Medicine Hat Tigers fans likely got whiplash from the roller coaster that was Saturday’s game, but a pair of strong bookending periods was more than enough for the club to secure two points.

For the second weekend in a row, the Tigers were able to earn a victory over a division leader with a 4-2 doubling up of the Prince Albert Raiders.

“I think that was a big one,” said forward Brett Kemp. “I think we came in with a mindset that we wanted to play our game because we kind of got away from it in the last couple of games. We definitely did that and it showed.”

Four different goal scorers were able to find the back of the net for Medicine Hat in the win, their second of the weekend after toppling the Moose Jaw Warriors 3-1 on Friday night.

“Best game I’ve been a part of in two years here,” said assistant coach Ryan Smith. “They’re a really good team. We knew we had to be on top of our game and I thought we were, especially at the start.”

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A pair of fights highlighted the charged evening at the Canalta Centre, while Medicine Hat was able to come out the gates flying offensively.

Boston Bilous’ night in the Raiders net was a short one, allowing a Cole Sillinger one-timer off the half wall while caught out of position six minutes into the game.

He was pulled by Marc Habscheid just 40 seconds later after being fooled by a bad angle shot from Jonathan Brinkman, seeing his night ended by the ‘Tabbies’ after less than seven minutes of action.

“We just wanted to come out for a quick start,” said Kemp. “We wanted to show them our speed because we know they’re a fast team. We wanted to outwork them and we definitely did.”

Tyler Preziuso almost gave the Tigers a 3-0 lead on the power play with a slap shot that beat new Raiders goalie Carter Serhyenko, however the goal was called back due to goaltender interference.

Early in the second period, Tigers defenceman Eric Van Impe laid a monster hit that led to a short but spirited scrap between the Calgary native and Prince Albert’s Evan Herman.

The Raiders were finally able to solve Mads Søgaard with their fifth shot of the game midway through the second period, potted by blueliner Remy Aquilon for the first goal of his WHL career.

Just a few minutes after Aquilon’s marker, Prince Albert’s Spencer Moe let a wrist shot rip from the left face-off circle to knot up the score at 2-2 stunning the Canalta Centre crowd.

It stayed a 2-2 game well into the third period, that was until a Medicine Hat 3-on-2 rush midway through the frame was finished off by a Kemp laser beam to put the Tigers back in the lead.

After some goading by Raiders defenceman Jeremy Masella minutes later, Tigers captain James Hamblin dropped the mitts for the first time in his career and earned the takedown to send the Canalta Centre into a frenzy.

“Kind of an impulse thing,” said Hamblin. “They were pretty rough on us today and [Masella] kind of took liberty on Preziuso there. I had a couple words back and forth with him and like I said it was just impulse to go at him.”

That energy carried over to a power play chance for Medicine Hat, with Corson Hopwo picking up his own rebound for the 4-2 insurance goal.

With the seconds winding down Søgaard dropped to one knee and tried for the empty Prince Albert net, however his 180-foot shot missed just wide of the open cage.

“I actually talked to him about that after and he said he kind of had to go for that,” said Kemp. “I mean that’s kind of funny, kind of eases off the pressure for us.”

Facing 12 shots in the third period alone it was a 25-save performance for Søgaard in the win, while Serhyenko earned second star honours with 27 saves on 29 shots in relief of Bilous.

Winning four of their last five games, the streaking Tigers have now taken down two divisional leaders in Prince Albert and Edmonton in the span of a week.

“It’s good just to know where we’re at in the league,” said Hamblin. “We’re going to play everyone the same, we got to play everyone the same. But, it is good to know where you sit.”

Smith added these results against nationally-ranked clubs should put the rest of the WHL on notice.

“For us, maybe we’re throwing ourselves into the mix of being talked about as one of these teams,” he said. “That’s great if we are. Nothing is won in November, but it’s a really good sign to see that we show up in the big games.”

Holding a 16-7-1-0 record, the Tigers will be off for the next few days with their next game not coming until Friday night in Moose Jaw battling the Warriors.

According to Smith, that will give Bryan Lockner a few days to recover from his injury that’s kept him out of the last four games, along with evaluating Nick McCarry who exited Saturday’s game and did not return.

“[Lockner] skated again today for the morning skate,” he said. “We’ll get a day off [Sunday] and we’ll enjoy the Grey Cup and he’ll skate again on Monday. Now we got some time, now we don’t play until Friday. It’s not a long-term thing, but it’s an injury you want to make sure that you don’t rush back into.”

“[Nick] was hurt in the first period, taken care of throughout the game and we’ll re-evaluate [Sunday]. “I don’t think it’s anything that’s going to set him for a long time, but that’s above my pay grade to say that.”

Medicine Hat’s next home game comes on November 30 against the Saskatoon Blades at 7:30 pm, hosting their annual Teddy Bear Toss game.