Medicine Hat Tigers dominate Wheat Kings in rough game

Thirty two seconds later Tigers captain Oasiz Wiesblatt dropped the mitts with the Wheat Kings Luke Shipley.

Leaving the Tigers up 1-0 after the first period.

In the second, the Tigers offense kicked in again at the 3:06 mark as Liam Ruck found a wide open Hunter St. Martin streaking in toward the net, who made no mistake burying it passed Wheat Kings goaltender Carson Bjarnason to make it 2-0 Tigers.

A minute and 29 seconds later it was Finnish defenseman Niilopekka Muhonen pinching down low towards the net who ripped home a pass from Hayden Harsanyi, with Jonas Woo also picking up an assist.

The Tigers took the 3-0 lead into the third, where they were able to get their fourth goal as Marcus Pacheco snapped home his first of year on a stretch pass from Veeti Vaisanen at 3:07. Hayden Haranyi also picked up his second assist of the night.

Tigers defenseman Nate Corbet would get into his second fight of the game, this time with the Wheat Kings Ben Binder-Nord at the 5:48 mark.

A few minutes later, Tigers forward Hayden Harsanyi went down hard in front of the net and left the game, helped off the ice at the 7:32 mark, which led to a holding call on the Wheat Kings Luke Shipley.

On the Tigers powerplay, they wasted little time, with Tigers forward Gavin McKenna ripped home his first of the season assisted by Andrew Basha and Oasiz Wiesblatt.

Then at the 14:26 mark a puck flipped by the Tigers Jonas Woo towards the net landed on Kaden McCann’s stick, who made a quick move on Bjarnason and to get his first of the year and put the Tigers up 6-0.

The Tigers later lost the puck just inside their own blue line, when Wheat Kings forward Jaxon Jacobson, found a wide open Brady Turko who tapped one passed the Tigers goaltender Harrison Meneghin at the 17:46 mark to give the Wheat Kings there first goal.

This ended a stretch where Meneghin played 151 minutes 54 seconds for the Tigers without being scored on.

The fourth fight of the night came at the 18:36 mark of the third when the Tigers Kaden McCann battled with the Wheat Kings Ben Binder-Nord, who had fought Corbet earlier in the contest.

Tigers associate coach Joe Frazer said it was a great team effort just like Wednesday when talking in a post game interview with Wild 94.5.

“It was an emotional game against one of the top teams in the Eastern Conference,” Frazer said.

The Wheat Kings racked up 38 penalty minutes to the Tigers 44 penalty minutes.

Tigers Defenseman Jack Kachkowski agreed that it was a battle in his post game radio interview.

“I thought it was a really gritty game, all the guys that fought did a good job answering the bell,” Kachkowski said

The Tigers controlled most statistical categories in the game, final shots were 37-22 in their favour, they won over 61 per cent of the face offs, and were two of seven on the power play compared to the Wheat Kings at zero and four.

Frazer expect a tough battle against the Vancouver Giants on Saturday night.

“They are kind of like us, lots of good forwards up front and a good D core,” Frazer said.

The contest between the Tigers who now sit at three win, four losses and the Giants who have five wins, two losses is Saturday 7 p.m. at Co-op Place.

Will Bryant and Lance Doll will have the call on the Wild 94.5 radio broadcast starting at 6:30 p.m.

Plenty of tickets still available.

by Jesse Gill

Medicine Hat Tigers dominate Wheat Kings in rough game

Our Community