Randy Feere/Medicine Hat Tigers

By Will Bryant

Sports

Tigers handle Hurricane’s 5-1, become first Eastern Conference team to clinch a playoff berth

Feb 17, 2025 | 6:44 PM

The Medicine Hat Tigers are playoff-bound following a 5-1 victory Monday afternoon against the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

Medicine Hat came out of the gate hot.

Under two minutes into the game, Misha Volotovskii was gifted a turnover inside the Lethbridge zone and fired the puck past the glove of Jackson Unger to get the Cats and early 1-0 lead.

Volotovskii wasn’t finished, seven minutes later he would deflect a Ryder Ritchie point shot past Unger for his second goal of the game, and eighth of the year, making it 2-0 Tigers.

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Medicine Hat would control play but the Hurricanes would get their chances, the most dangerous of which came on the tail end of their second powerplay of the period.

Tigers goaltender Harrison Meneghin would make two point-blank stops on Hurricanes forward Kash Andresen to keep the Tigers in front 2-0 through a period of play.

The Tigers would begin the second frame on a 5-on-3 powerplay, after ending the first ahead 5-on-4, a review at the end of the period would see Hurricanes defenseman Noah Chadwick assessed a four-minute double-minor for high-sticking giving the Tigers an early opportunity to stretch their lead to three.

Lethbridge would kill off the 5-on-3 and the first half of the double minor, but the Tigers would strike in the dying moments of the second half.

Oasiz Wiesblatt would lead a 4-on-1 rush into the Lethbridge zone, and snipe a shot past Unger for his 27th goal of the season, getting the Tigers ahead 3-0.

Medicine Hat would hold Lethbridge shotless for the first 16 minutes of the second period, but once the Hurricanes hit the target, they made Meneghin work.

Harrison Meneghin would make a pair of stellar saves, the first on a wraparound attempt, and the other on the follow-up chance, stopping both to maintain the Tiger three-goal lead entering the intermission.

The Tigers would begin the third period on another powerplay and would once again capitalize.

After hitting a pair of posts the third chance would prove the charm for the Tigers, with Ryder Ritchie finishing off a pretty passing play, placing the puck perfectly above the shoulder of Jackson Unger to get the Tigers a 4-0 lead early in the third.

Seven minutes later, on another 5-on-3 powerplay, the Tigers would make it 5-0.

Gavin McKenna would send a shot towards the net that tipped off Hurricanes defenseman Caden Price’s stick, through the five-hole of Unger to stretch the Tiger lead to five.

The shutout bid for Harrison Meneghin would be snapped with just over five minutes left in the game when Trae Johnson tapped home a powerplay goal for the Hurricanes.

The goal snapped 115 minutes of consecutive shutout hockey for the Tigers both overall, and against Lethbridge.

The final buzzer would sound with the Tigers skating off with a 5-1 victory and clinching a playoff berth.

Medicine Hat becomes the first eastern conference team to have clinched, with the Everett Silvertips being the lone other team to have already clinched the postseason.

The Medicine Hat Tigers (37-16-3-1) are now off until Friday night when they begin a three games in three nights stretch at home against the Edmonton Oil Kings (30-20-2-2).