By Scott Roblin

Clift backstops visiting Cubs to 6-1 stomping of High River

Nov 10, 2018 | 11:28 AM

HIGH RIVER, AB – Martyn Clift turned in another stellar performance on Friday night, helping the Medicine Hat Travelodge Cubs to their second straight win over a Southern Division rival.

Clift allowed just one goal on 38 shots against, backstopping the Cubs to a dominant 6-1 victory over the High River Flyers to kick off their weekend road trip.

While the result was what the team was looking for, the same couldn’t be said for their start as the Cubs fell into a 1-0 hole 2:53 into the game following a Flyers goal from Mitchell Bosch.

It only took Medicine Hat a couple of minutes to wake up though, with Noah Irvine ripping home a shot from Tavin Stadnicki two minutes later to tie the game at 1-1.

Both teams went into the intermission deadlocked at a goal apiece, but an early power play in the second period seemed to turn the tide for the Cubs.

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Just 22 seconds into the middle stanza, captain Quinten Karg broke his 15-game goalless drought and netted the go-ahead goal for Medicine Hat on the man advantage.

The Cubs expanded their lead to 3-1 less than three minutes later with Brayden MacDonell scoring his first career HJHL goal, before Irvine added his second of the night on the power play 6:39 into the period.

Medicine Hat finally chased Flyers goalie Chantz Vinck with seven minutes to go in the second frame, as Chandler Aleman busted a three-game slump on a breakaway with his 11th goal of the campaign to make it 5-1.

Early in the third period, Medicine Hat put all hope of a Flyers comeback out of reach with a Tristan Stensrud bomb past Max Johnston in relief.

Special teams were clicking on Friday night for the visiting Cubs, converting on both of their power play chances and killing off all five of their penalties on the evening.

Since returning to the Cubs organization over the last few weeks, Clift has been a star for Medicine Hat with a 2-0-0 record, a 0.71 goals against average, and a .983 save percentage.

That’s helped Medicine Hat register back-to-back wins, improving to 6-7-2 on the season and climbing past High River into fifth place in the Southern Division.

Medicine Hat is in for a tough test on Saturday though, as they look for revenge in Red Deer after dropping a 4-2 decision at home against the Vipers earlier this month.