Gavin McKenna’s seven-point night helps the Medicine Hat Tigers upend the Red Deer Rebels 7-3

Rebels forward Mathew Gard deflected a Jake Missura point shot between the legs of Tigers netminder Harrison Meneghin for his 17th goal of the season and tied the game at one.

Medicine Hat would then score three goals in the final five minutes of the first period to take a 4-1 lead into the intermission.

Just under Two minutes after the Rebels tied the game at one, Gavin McKenna scored his first of the night, chipping the puck above the shoulder of Shore and in to restore the Tigers lead.

The Tiger pressure would continue, leading to a beautiful tic-tac-toe play that Oasiz Wiesblatt finished off for his 34th goal of the season, stretching the Tiger lead to two.

As the Tigers celebrated the goal, Rebels defenseman Derek Thurston sent his team shorthanded after slashing Tigers forward Hunter St. Martin following the Wiesblatt goal.

In the dying moments of the ensuing powerplay, Gavin McKenna sent a low shot along the ice that fooled Shore to get the Cats ahead 4-1.

It was the second consecutive period of hockey (not counting overtime) that the Tigers had scored four goals.

Despite allowing three goals in the final five minutes of the first period, the Red Deer Rebels began the second period strong taking less than five minutes to shrink the deficit back down to two.

Rebels captain Ollie Josephson snapped an innocent shot towards the glove of Meneghin and the puck got through the glove of the Tiger netminder to make the game 4-2.

Seven minutes later, the Rebels found themselves on the powerplay with a chance to get back within a goal.

Instead, the opposite would happen.

In the dying moments of the Red Deer powerplay, Mathew Ward stole a puck away inside the Tiger blueline and sprung Gavin McKenna in on a breakaway.

McKenna made no mistake, finding the back of the net for his third goal of the night, and third hat-trick of the season to restore the Tiger three-goal lead.

That lead would get shrunk back down to two three and a half minutes later when Matthew Gard deflected home his second of the night, making the score 5-3 and getting the Rebels back with striking distance entering the second intermission.

The third period saw the Rebels push, but fail to break back to within a goal.

In the final five minutes, frustration began to boil over for the Rebels and they would head shorthanded.

Medicine Hat needed only seven seconds of powerplay time to extend their lead back to three.

Oasiz Wiesblatt finished off another tic-tac-toe play for the Tigers for his second goal of the night, making it 6-3 Cats.

The goal was the 100th in the career of Oasiz Wiesblatt, but the Tigers captain wasn’t finished.

Less than two minutes later the Tigers would find themselves back on the man-advantage.

This time the Tigers needed a minute longer to find the back of the net, but scored nonetheless with Oasiz Wiesblatt completing the hat-trick after deflecting home a Gavin McKenna point shot.

The point was the 100th of the season for Wiesblatt, crossing the 100-point plateau for the first time in his WHL career.

Wiesblatt joins linemate Gavin McKenna with 100 points, marking the first time a pair of Tigers have each surpassed the 100-point plateau in the same season since the 1990-1991 campaign.

The Tigers closed out the game on yet another man-advantage, skating away with a 7-3 victory and securing a split in the season series with Red Deer.

The Medicine Hat Tigers (45-17-3-1) will be idle until next Saturday, March 22nd when they host the Lethbridge Hurricanes (41-20-3-2) for their final home game of the regular season.

by Will Bryant

Gavin McKenna’s seven-point night helps the Medicine Hat Tigers upend the Red Deer Rebels 7-3

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