Everett Silvertips goaltender Dustin Wolf making one of his 41 saves on Saturday night (Photo courtesy of Medicine Hat Tigers)

By Scott Roblin

Tigers Stymied

Wolf howls in 41-save shutout, Tigers win streak snapped by Silvertips

Dec 7, 2019 | 11:22 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The debut of two new weapons was spoiled on Saturday night for the Medicine Hat Tigers, seeing a season-long win streak snapped by the Everett Silvertips.

Dustin Wolf stopped all 41 shots he faced while Cole Fonstad had himself a three-point night in a 5-0 shutout victory for Everett, silencing the Tigers and their two newest acquisitions in Dylan Plouffe and Lukas Svejkovsky.

“We wanted to come in here and have a better effort than we did last night in Swift Current,” said Wolf. “Beyond words, that’s exactly what we did. I was fortunate to have a lot of good blocked shots out there and definitely a full team win tonight.”

Plouffe and Svejkovsky were each held off the scoresheet in their Medicine Hat debut, brought over from the Vancouver Giants earlier in the day in a blockbuster trade for longtime Tigers Tyler Preziuso and Trevor Longo.

Arriving on a plane earlier in the day and just getting acquainted with his new teammates, Plouffe said it was for the best hitting the ice after such a quick turnaround despite the loss.

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“It’s nice to get this kind of game out of the way,” said Plouffe. “It’s not something that we wanted in there, but I know this team is going to fight hard to build again. It’s nice to get it out of the way, get some jitters out, and I guess loosen myself up in the room.”

As for Svejkovsky, he was thrown onto the Tigers top line alongside captain James Hamblin and Corson Hopwo, with whom he’s already had experience playing with.

“They’re both really skilled, fast forwards,” said Svejkovsky. “I’ve known Corson for a long time and I played with him growing up. So, it was really fun, obviously didn’t get the bounces or result we wanted. But, those are two really good players and it’s really fun to play with them.”

Everett captain Bryce Kindopp opened the scoring off an odd-man rush, picking up his own rebound at the side of the net and waiting out Garin Bjorklund for his 18th goal of the season.

Just before the first intermission buzzer the Tigers allowed a Fonstad breakaway which was stopped by Bjorklund, but none of his teammates picked up the rebound in the slot. That allowed Jake Christiansen to walk in and make it a 2-0 game with 19 seconds left in the period.

“I thought the first period was probably our worst,” said Tigers head coach Willie Desjardins. “I thought we were decent in the second and third. They just have a good team, there was nothing there other than that. I thought our goaltender played good, he had a lot of tough saves and he played well. But, the rest of us didn’t have our best game.”

The game grounded to a halt just over six minutes into the second period when linesman Curtis Funk went down off a face-off and remained on the ice holding his right leg.

Trainers from both the Tigers and Silvertips attended to Funk, who was wheeled off the ice on a stretcher a few minutes later.

After Parker Gavlas and Gianni Fairbrother each got the gate on coincidental roughing penalties, the Silvertips made it a 3-0 game with a Ronan Seeley shot from the point finding the back of the net.

Things went from bad to worse for the Tigers with five minutes left in the second as Gavlas was stripped of the puck in the slot by Fonstad, who then sniped his club’s fourth goal of the evening.

Christiansen netted his second goal of the night early in the third period off an odd-man rush, keeping the puck and going top shelf on Bjorklund to make it a 5-0 Silvertips lead.

Hamblin said the team’s struggles on the forecheck led to the majority of Everett’s high-danger chances on Saturday.

“If we get behind their [defence] we stand a way better chance on the forecheck than we do turning it over and them using their speed,” said Hamblin. “So, I think they did a good job of that.”

Encapsulating the night for the Tigers, Fonstad was sprung on a breakaway shortly after Christiansen’s goal and attempted to go between the legs.

A shot from the point late in the game by Hamblin hit Ryan Chyzowski in the back of the neck, who left for the dressing room and did not return for the remainder of the game.

Desjardins said they’ll evaluate the veteran centre over the next few days.

“We’ll see, we weren’t going to bring him back in that situation,” he said. “So, we’ll bring him back after.”

Dustin Wolf continued his remarkable 2019-20 season with his fifth shutout of the year, leading the WHL in that category.

“I’d say for the majority of the game I was able to see almost every puck, which is obviously a goaltender’s dream,” said Wolf. “It’s awesome when a team comes together like we did and obviously it’s a big confidence booster for our group.”

As for Medicine Hat’s Bjorklund, he was handed just the second loss of his WHL career allowing five goals on 34 shots against.

Losing their first game since November 19, Medicine Hat dropped to a 20-8-1-0 record and now sit four points behind the Edmonton Oil Kings for first place in the Central Division.

“I think we’ve done a good job of coming back after this, I mean we need to” said Hamblin. “It’s a big last week for us, we know it’s going to be a tough one. So, we got to come back Monday prepared.”

Medicine Hat embarks on a three-game road trip on Tuesday night in Saskatchewan, visiting Saskatoon and the Blades at the SaskTel Centre at 6:00 pm.