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By Scott Roblin

5-1 Loss

Tigers fall flat in home-and-home opener versus Broncos

Mar 18, 2022 | 10:26 PM

SWIFT CURRENT, SK – Turnovers and defensive zone blunders cost the Medicine Hat Tigers in their first game of their weekend home-and-home series against the Swift Current Broncos.

Sam McGinley netted a pair of goals in the second period, part of a three-goal frame for the Broncos as they rolled to a 5-1 victory over Medicine Hat.

Despite outshooting Swift Current 31-30 on Friday, the Tigers were only able to get one goal past Reid Dyck from Andrew Basha midway through the second.

After Garin Bjorklund came up with some monster stops early in the game off Tigers turnovers, the Broncos finally broke through off the rush from a Josh Filmon slap shot 10:25 in.

That 1-0 lead for Swift Current carried over to the second, when just 35 seconds in it was Raphael Pelletier wiring a one-time blast from McGinley past an outstretched Bjorklund.

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Less than six minutes after Pelletier’s goal, McGinley recorded his first goal of the night electing to pick up the puck at the side of the net and executing a perfect wraparound for the 3-0 lead.

Going 0-for-3 on their first trio of power plays on the night, Medicine Hat finally got on the board near the midway mark of the game with Basha taking a feed from Teague Patton and sniping his third of the year past Dyck on the man advantage.

Momentum ground to a halt for the Tigers with under two minutes left in the frame however, as McGinley recorded his third point of the period off an odd-man rush goal to make it a 4-1 game.

Broncos forward Connor Hvidston was able to put a fifth goal on the board for the home side with 5:36 remaining, sending the Tigers home with a loss to open up the weekend.

Dyck was a force of consistency for Swift Current stopping 30 of the 31 shots he took on, while Bjorklund made 25 stops in the loss.

Medicine Hat and Swift Current will wind up their season series on Saturday night back at Co-Op Place for the rematch, which gets underway at 7:00 pm.