Tigers jump all over Kootenay in 11-1 romp

By Mo Cranker on October 21, 2017.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

Dawson Heathcote must have had a horseshoe in his hockey pants on Friday night at the Canalta Centre.

The 17-year-old rookie forward capitalized on a pair of fortuitous bounces then worked his way onto the highlight reel with an impressive individual effort to complete his first career hat trick — with his fourth career goal no less — and lead the Tigers to an 11-1 landslide over the Kootenay Ice.

“It was a pretty surreal moment,” said Heathcote. “I didn’t think it was going to come this fast but it’s just going to help my confidence, and obviously my teammates were a big help.”

Ryan Jevne set the tone early for Medicine Hat. The 19-year-old power forward finished off a rebound in front of Kootenay Ice netminder Bailey Brkin just 22 seconds into the game to set the framework for a wild 60 minutes.

The 1-0 lead stood for the majority of the opening frame until Heathcote put his milestone night in motion. The Nanaimo product deflected a loose puck behind the net with his skate and caused it into the goal —opening the floodgates for the blowout to come.

The Ice put themselves in penalty trouble immediately after the marker and David Quenneville made them pay for the mistake. The 19-year-old blueliner blasted a one-timer past Brkin for one of his three points on the evening — bringing him to 17 on the year with at least one in every game.

The Tabbies started the second right where they left off. Heathcote kept the offensive onslaught rolling on another chance occurrence early in the frame — redirecting an odd bounce off the end-boards into an open cage — then Jevne broke in all alone and drew a penalty shot just over a minute later.

Jevne made no mistake on the opportunity, forcing Brkin to react with a deke then sending a backhand shot into the roof of the goal for his second of the night and third of the year.

“We just stuck to our game plan,” said Jevne, who had five points on the night. “We know they’re a lot better team than they were in the past so we had to bring everything we had and just play our game, which is speed and structure. I thought we did that for the full 60 minutes, even once the score got a little far away.”

It was only the start of Medicine Hat’s most dominant period of the season. Heathcote kept the burning pace alive just a few minutes later, firing a puck past Brkin from the high slot to end the netminder’s night early and send several hats flying onto the ice.

“It definitely gave me energy and a lot of confidence. I’m feeling good right now,” said Heathcote. “We were buzzing. We followed our game plan to the T.”

Ryan Chyzowski joined the scoring parade later with his third of the year later in the frame, then Dylan MacPherson found his own moment a few minutes later. The 19-year-old Redcliff product put one through the wickets of Ice backup Kurtis Chapman for the first goal of his WHL career, in his 66th game with the Tigers.

“I didn’t really have a chance to celebrate, Gary Haden jumped on me pretty quick after the goal so I’m kind of just soaking it in right now,” said MacPherson. “The first 66 games were just getting out there, playing and finding my stride. This year I think it’s going to be a little bit different.”

Haden drove a ninth puck into the Kootenay cage less than a minute later to cap off a six-goal second period.

“It was great. We all played together, we didn’t stray from the systems or anything like that,” said MacPherson. “We stuck together and played like a family.”

Tigers captain Mark Rassell completed the quest for 10 midway through the third, finishing off a feed from Josh Williams for his own 10th of the season. Chyzowski struck again a few minutes later extend Medicine Hat’s lead to double digits.

Tigers goaltender Jordan Hollett stopped 23 shots to lock up his third victory of the season and push the Tigers to 6-3-0-0. Brkin was pulled after allowing six goals on 23 shots. Chapman stopped 26 in relief, but couldn’t stop the Ice from falling to 4-6-1-0.

The Tigers hit the road to Lethbridge Sunday to take on the ‘Canes at 6 p.m.