Photo courtesy of Randy Feere / Medicine Hat Tigers

By Scott Roblin

Teddy Bear Toss

Kemp tallies Teddy Bear Toss goal, Tigers take down Blades with late comeback

Nov 30, 2019 | 11:44 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Medicine Hat Tigers fans provided the teddy bears and the Tigers served up a third period comeback in return at the Canalta Centre on Saturday night.

Brett Kemp scored the team’s fabled ‘Teddy Bear Toss’ goal 5:23 into the first period against Saskatoon, while his teammates helped orchestrate a wild third period rally in a 5-3 victory over the Blades.

“It was obviously pretty special and it only happens once a year,” said Kemp. “I just went into the game thinking it’s just another game and I wasn’t worried about too much. But, to have that happen and to have that feeling, it’s nice.”

Medicine Hat was quick out of the gates with a flurry of shots early and benefited from a tripping call against Saskatoon’s Riley McKay five minutes into the first period.

On the ensuing man advantage, Kemp took a feed from Elijah Brown and slid the puck through the five-hole of Koen MacInnes to send the teddy bears raining onto the Canalta Centre ice.

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“I missed the last two teddy bear tosses, one I was sitting at home and last year I was hurt,” said Brown. “So, it was pretty cool to be on the ice for it. You play against teddy bear toss goals and when you get scored on it’s not very fun. But here, you get it once a year and you get one chance.”

Kemp also stretched Medicine Hat’s streak to three consecutive years with the Teddy Bear Toss goal coming on the power play, joining the likes of captain James Hamblin and New York Islanders prospect David Quenneville.

Being added to a list that includes those players and current professional Max Gerlach, Kemp said it’s a cool honour.

“They’re obviously very skilled players and they’re all playing pro somewhere, obviously [Hamblin] is going to play pro somewhere too,” he said. “So, it’s definitely nice to get on that list.”

That 1-0 lead stretched into the second period, however the Blades were able to strike with back-to-back goals from McKay and Zach Huber just one minute apart to snap the Tigers streak without trailing in a game at 187:06.

It wasn’t long before the score was back even though, with Medicine Hat’s Elijah Brown being sent alone on a breakaway and netting his fourth of the season 6:34 into the middle frame.

Poor defensive play just over a minute later cost the Tigers again with Kyle Crnkovic snapping home his seventh on the year from the slot, beating Mads Søgaard for Saskatoon’s third goal of the period.

Just a week after Hamblin notched the first fight of his WHL career, his linemate Corson Hopwo did the same by dropping the gloves with Blades captain Chase Wouters.

Leading 27-19 in shots after 40 minutes, the trailing Tigers poured on the offence even more in the third period with 19 shots being fired at MacInnes.

Defender Eric Van Impe was finally able to tie up the contest at 3-3 with a bomb from the point just past the midway mark of the period, kicking off a flurry of goals by Medicine Hat.

Hopwo was able to restore the Tigers lead only 17 seconds after Van Impe’s equalizer, setting the stage for Jonathan Brinkman to add a needed insurance marker just over a minute after that.

Assistant coach Joe Frazer said after a lacklustre second period that saw the Tigers struggle to carry the puck through the neutral zone, the team made all the changes necessary over the final 20 minutes.

“We addressed it in between periods and the guys really got back to the game plan in the third,” said Frazer. “They were blocking a lot of shots early, their wingers, our defencemen weren’t getting the pucks through. The goals there in the third, our defencemen got the shots through.”

Brown was named the first star of the game with his first three-point performance of the season, while Hamblin picked up three assists in the win.

Between the pipes Søgaard earned his 11^th victory of the year with a 20-save performance against MacInnes’ 41 saves in net for Saskatoon.

Blueliner Nick Perna also made his debut in a Tigers uniform after being acquired by the team from the Portland Winterhawks on Thursday, held scoreless with a plus-one rating.

“The drive up here was a little bit hairy,” said Perna. “It was nice to get up here, fight through that snow storm and get on the ice.”

Winners of their last four games in a row and seven of their last eight, the streaking Tigers hold a record of 18-7-1-0 but remain one point back of Lethbridge and Edmonton for top spot in the Central Division.

Brown added Saturday’s victory will be a good reminder for the club on how to overcome third period deficits, especially as the enter the second half of the season in the new year.

“We’re almost at the break here and it’s good to know that we can do this against a good team,” he said. “Our schedule is going to get a lot harder here in the next month and a half. So, to know we can come together and really pull games out like this, it’s awesome.”

A busy week continues on Tuesday night for Medicine Hat with a divisional tilt against their Highway 3 rivals in the Hurricanes with puck drop set for 7:00 pm at the Canalta Centre.