Edmonton Oil Kings Hockey Club/LA Media

By Will Bryant

Sports

Comeback Cats strike in Edmonton, defeat Oil Kings 5-3

Feb 23, 2025 | 11:16 PM

The Medicine Hat Tigers combined for three third-period goals to secure a 5-3 come-from-behind victory Sunday night against the Edmonton Oil Kings.

The meeting was the eighth and final of the regular season between the two bitter division rivals.

Edmonton held a four games to three lead in the head-to-head following a 5-4 victory Friday night inside Co-op Place but the Tigers were bent on revenge.

The game would start with Medicine Hat securing an early powerplay.

Early on the man-advantage, Tigers forward Ryder Ritchie would get a great chance alone in the slot, but the Oil Kings netminder Alex Worthington stood tall and made a great save to keep the game scoreless.

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After the kill, Edmonton would respond with pressure in the Tigers zone, leading to Riley Steen taking a boarding penalty and sending the Oil Kings to the powerplay.

Edmonton would capitalize.

After a display of dazzling passing, Oil Kings forward Landon Hanson tipped home a Roan Woodward pass to get the Oil Kings the game’s first goal.

Off the ensuing faceoff, the Tigers would head right back to the box.

Ryder Ritchie would get caught reaching on the backcheck and head to the box for tripping.

The Oil Kings would take advantage yet again.

Gracyn Sawchyn stole a puck from Tigers defenseman Tanner Molendyk off the face-off and fed it to Adam Jecho who wristed the puck past Tigers netminder Harrison Meneghin to get the Oil Kings ahead 2-0.

Medicine Hat would respond three and a half minutes later.

Marcus Pacheco would take a pass atop the right circle of the Oil Kings zone and wire the puck past Worthington to shrink the Tigers deficit to one.

That is how the score would sit through twenty minutes with the Tigers trailing 2-1.

Despite beginning the second period on a powerplay, the Tigers would fail to score and remained down a goal.

The next ten minutes of the middle frame would see the clubs passively trade chances until the Tigers turned a puck over in the neutral zone to Adam Jecho.

Jecho split the Tiger defense and burst in on a breakaway, chipping the puck beneath the arm of Harrison Meneghin, restoring the Edmonton two-goal lead.

With under five minutes left in the frame the Tigers would head to their third powerplay of the night and this time would make the most of the chance.

After a scrambly play in front, a loose puck rolled to the far wall where Gavin McKenna fired the puck towards the gaping net of Worthington and in to shrink the Tiger deficit back down to one.

The Tigers trailed 3-2 through two periods of play, not an insurmountable deficit.

However, Edmonton was 24-0-1-1 when leading through two periods coming into the game, making a Tiger comeback attempt improbable.

The Tigers then proceeded to make it look easy.

The comeback attempt began exactly seven minutes into the third with Hunter St. Martin shovelling home a rebound for the tying goal and his 36th goal of the season.

Three and a half minutes later, the Tigers took their first lead of the night.

Tanner Molendyk drove wide into the left wing corner of the Oil Kings zone and threaded a pass through a tight window perfectly onto the stick of Gavin McKenna.

McKenna made no mistake, batting the puck past Worthington for his second goal of the night, getting the Tigers ahead 4-3.

The insurance marker would come two minutes later when Mathew Ward sniped a puck past Worthington making it 5-3 Tigers.

Things would get dicey late for the Tigers.

After Oil Kings defenseman Josh Mori took a couple shots at the chin of Gavin McKenna, McKenna responded with a two-handed slash to the stick of Mori that broke McKenna’s stick and sent Mori to the ice.

McKenna would be assessed a five-minute major for slashing, giving the Oil Kings a five-minute powerplay with 4:39 left in the game, down two.

The Medicine Hat penalty kill that had been 0 for 2 up to that point would face its toughest test of the night.

They had all the answers.

The Tigers held the Oil Kings goalless on the extended man advantage and skated out of Rogers place with a 5-3 victory and a split of the season series.

The Medicine Hat Tigers (39-17-3-1) will be off until Friday night when they head on the road to take on the Regina Pats (15-35-5-2) for their final matchup of the season.