Medicine Hat Cubs split two home games to open the regular season

The season’s first goal came shortly after the opening face-off.

Colby Gulliver would bang home a drop pass from Brennan Finke to open the scoring on the first shot of the game, just 59 seconds in.

The Cubs held the 1-0 lead until 13 minutes into the period when the Flyers’ Beck O’Neill picked up a rebound at the side of the net and fired it home to tie the game.

In the second period, the Cubs took the lead back when Randen Collier snuck a backhand behind the Flyers’ goalie. Jesse Klimosko assisted on the goal 5:27 into the period.

Defenceman Brodie Heimebecker joined the rush and hammered home a backhand pass from Cole Fisher to make it 3-1 for the Cubs less than three minutes later. Gulliver also picked up an assist.

Fisher would extend the Cubs’ lead to 4-1 just a minute and 42 seconds into the third period on an unassisted marker.

The Flyers made things interesting with a pair of goals to follow, one from Emerett Norlean and another from Jake Brennan. Former SEAC Tigers U17 AAA player Nolan Peppler had assists on both to close the gap to 4-3.

Heimbecker would get his second of the game, an insurance goal for the Cubs with only 3:31 left in the contest. Assists went to Fisher and Gulliver.

The Cubs outshot the Flyers 49-23, with Erich Baxter turning aside 44 shots for the Flyers and Kayden Van Ham stopping 20 for the Cubs.

Fans at Kinplex filled the stands to near capacity as the Cubs won the game 5-3.

On Saturday, the Cubs lost 5-4 to the Mountain View Colts.

The scoring again started with a Gulliver goal, this time 5:41 into the first period, assisted by Kade Dickie and Fisher.

That 1-0 Cubs lead lasted only 40 seconds before Beau Van Vlaanderen stuck back for the Colts.

Nate Smith would give the Colts a 2-1 lead before the end of the first period.

Early in the second period, a shot off the post by the Cubs’ Reeve Zacharias had Jaxon Bohrn score to tie the game at two. Klimosko added an assist.

Midway through the period, the Colts would regain a 3-2 lead on a Lucas Billings goal.

Finke would tie the game back up at three on the power play 14:30 into the period, with assists to Gulliver and Treyden Kleinkneckt.

Just 32 seconds later, Klimosko scored to give the Cubs a 4-3 lead, with assists to Jacob Hazzard and Finke.

The Cubs’ lead was short-lived as Smith tied things up again for the Colts a minute and 13 seconds later.

Sawyer Campbell would score the game-winner for the Colts midway through the third period.

A few minutes later, things got out of hand when the Colts Joseph Krukowski delivered a mid-to-upper-body slash on Cubs goaltender Kayden Van Ham.

Van Ham would then rack up 27 penalty minutes, delivering a flurry of punches to Krukowski. He was assessed five minutes for fighting, a two-minute instigator penalty, a two-minute hit-to-the-head penalty with a misconduct also attached to the infraction, and a game misconduct for fighting.

Krukowski escaped the interaction with a two-minute minor for slashing and a ten-minute misconduct.

With Van Ham ejected, Hudson Corbett came in to finish off in net for the Cubs and made six saves.

Van Ham stopped 19 of 24 shots in the loss, while the Colts’ William Steingart turned aside 27 of 31 shots in the win.

The Colts were zero-for-14 on the power play, while the Cubs were one-for-12. A total of 101 penalty minutes were dolled out in a physical game, with 53 for the Cubs and 48 for the Colts.

The Cubs return to home ice Friday when they host the Rocky Rams at the Kinplex at 7:30 p.m.

by Jesse Gill

Medicine Hat Cubs split two home games to open the regular season

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