John Keller/Tri-City Americans

By Will Bryant

Sports

Tri try again, Tigers handle Americans to extend win-streak to nine

Jan 25, 2025 | 11:53 PM

The Medicine Hat Tigers defeated the Tri-City Americans 3-1 Saturday night to extend their season-high win streak to nine games.

Riding high off a thrilling 3-2 comeback win in Spokane the night before, Medicine Hat carried that momentum into Saturday’s action.

The first period would see some stop-and-start hockey emphasized by a physical brand of hockey imposed by Tri-City.

The Tigers controlled the opening frame, outshooting the Americans 12-2, but a late powerplay for Tri-City narrowed the gap entering the intermission, with the game remaining scoreless.

The second period would see more balanced play, with the Tigers controlling the opening two minutes before the Americans countered with three minutes of chances upon chances in the Medicine Hat zone, but were unable to beat Tigers goalie Harrison Meneghin.

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The Tigers finally escaped, countering on the rush while hemming a tired Americans unit in their own zone, leading to Tri-City icing the puck out of fatigue.

Stu Barnes, Tri-City Head Coach elected to call his team’s lone timeout to allow his team to recover, sensing momentum shifting in the Tigers’ favour.

Despite the timeout, he was right.

The Americans would draw up a play in the timeout that was snuffed out by Tigers defenseman Bryce Pickford who intercepted a pass at center-ice and attacked the right-side of the Americans zone.

Pickford sent a pass cross-ice to Gavin McKenna who returned the puck back-door to a wide-open Pickford who tapped the puck home to get the Tigers on the board 12:20 into the middle frame.

With the assist, McKenna extended his point streak to 22 games, and his assist streak to 17 games.

The Tigers would keep rolling a little over three minutes later when Mathew Ward shoveled home a loose puck to get the Tigers in front 2-0.

The Tigers would lock it down in the rest of the frame to carry the 2-0 lead into the intermission.

After coming back from 2-0 down last night, the Tigers found themselves the team looking to preserve the lead.

The third period would start and three minutes in, Tri-City would show life.

A battle for a puck in the far corner of the Tigers zone would see the puck pop free in front of the Tiger goal where Americans captain Jake Sloan shot it past Harrison Meneghin to shrink the deficit to one.

The Toyota Center erupted, but the Tigers quickly quieted the barn.

Minutes later the Americans would get called for delay of game, and thirty seconds into their second powerplay of the game, the Tigers would restore their two-goal lead.

Tanner Molendyk carried the puck end-to-end and found Gavin McKenna at the top of the point in the Americans zone.

McKenna swung a pass to the top of the left circle for Oasiz Wiesblatt who rung a wrist shot home to make it a 3-1 Tiger advantage.

Medicine Hat would lock things down the rest of the way securing their ninth straight victory, one shy of their longest win streak since the 2016-17 season.

With the win, the Tigers improve to 30-15-2-0 on the season and are off until Tuesday, when they take on the Wenatchee Wild (17-23-3-1) for the third game of their U.S road trip