Jevne completes wild comeback

By Ryan McCracken on February 19, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

The Medicine Hat Tigers pulled out all the stops on Saturday night at the Canalta Centre.

Ryan Jevne scored just over three minutes into overtime to complete a rousing comeback while locking up Medicine Hat’s first win over the Broncos this season in a gripping 4-3 battle.

“We knew we had to have a big comeback game, and to beat a team like that — same with Moose Jaw —it really gives our team some confidence coming into the next couple games,” said Jevne. “We’re going to have to build off it and make sure we do the same things.”

While the Broncos kept Medicine Hat’s time and space to a minimum through the opening frame, Elijah Brown put the Tabbies on the advantage after streaking down the right wing and drawing a slash on Colby Sissons —then Jevne converted on the ensuing power play.

“He had a great night,” Tigers head coach Shaun Clouston said of Brown. “He was very dangerous and put a lot of pressure on the opponents defensive group with his speed.”

The 19-year-old winger batted a bouncing puck past Broncos goaltender Stuart Skinner to give the Tigers a narrow edge at the end of 20 minutes with his 15th goal of the season, but Swift Current battled back into the picture in the second period.

Glenn Gawdin evened the score three minutes into the middle frame when he snapped a wrist shot past Tigers goaltender Michael Bullion off the rush for his 51st of the year —igniting Swift Current’s significant cheering section in the southeast corner.

Medicine Hat continued to throw the puck on Skinner — testing him 24 times through 40 minutes while holding Swift to 16 shots — but a late high sticking call to Jaeger White put the Broncos in the driver’s seat to start the third.

While they didn’t convert on White’s double minor, the Broncos used the advantage to hem Medicine Hat into their own end before forcing a costly neutral zone turnover and feeding Aleksi Heponiemi for a breakaway goal.

The Broncos went right back to occupying the Tigers end and Artyom Minulin struck again by creeping in from the corner and beating Bullion low to give Swift Current some breathing room.

But the Tigers regrouped following a timeout and tilted the ice back in their favour when Bryan Lockner finished off some sustained pressure in the Broncos end with a tap-in goal from Mark Rassell at the edge of the crease, then Brown cashed in a rebound with five minutes left in regulation to set up Medicine Hat’s 17th trip to overtime this season.

“Coming into the second we had some jump and obviously it showed,” said Gawdin. “In the third period it kind of got away from us and in overtime there was a breakdown, and when that happens it ends up in the back of your net.”

While the Broncos had their chances to steal away the game, Jevne completed the comeback with two minutes left in overtime to send the most of the 3,677 in attendance home happy.

“It came at a good time, for sure, with Lethbridge closing up the gap on us,” said Brown. “We battled as a full 20-man team for 60 minutes. It was awesome and the room right now is electric.”

Bullion locked up the victory with 28 saves, shaking off Friday’s six-goal setback in Swift while pushing the Tigers to 29-24-7-0 on the season.

“We needed him down the stretch,” said Clouston. “There were a couple point blank chances where it could have been over for us but he came up with a couple really big saves.”

Skinner settled for the 34-save setback, dropping the Broncos to 42-13-4-1.

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