By Scott Roblin

Tigers blank Rebels in Red Deer to polish off pre-season

Sep 16, 2018 | 11:12 AM

RED DEER, AB – Garin Bjorklund and Mads Sogaard are making the decision for Medicine Hat’s backup goaltender position more difficult by the day.

The duo combined to stop all 34 shots they faced in Red Deer on Saturday night, helping the Tigers to a 3-0 shutout victory over the Rebels in their last game of the pre-season.

Sogaard was steady with 21 saves over the first 30 minutes of Saturday’s contest, while Bjorklund added another 13 stops to give Medicine Hat back-to-back shutouts in exhibition action.

On offence, Dawson Heathcote opened the scoring with his third of the pre-season just over nine minutes into the contest.

With less than five minutes to go in the second period, Rebels defenceman Hunter Donohoe was sent off for interference and gave the Tigers another shot on the power play.

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Veteran Gary Haden made no mistake on the man advantage, netting his second goal in as many exhibition games to put Medicine Hat ahead 2-0 at the second intermission.

Red Deer pressed with 14 shots in the third period but Bjorklund proved to be too much, as Tyler Preziuso added an empty net goal to make it a 3-0 final score.

Medicine Hat outshot Red Deer by a count of 45-34, while Heathcote and Preziuso both had multi-point efforts in the victory.

Finishing the pre-season with a 3-1-1 record, the Tigers will make their final cuts this week before the regular season arrives.

Medicine Hat will head to Lethbridge on Friday to open the 2018-19 WHL campaign, before returning to the Canalta Centre on Saturday at 7:30 pm for their home opener.