Wheat Kings battle back into series with win over Tigers

By Ryan McCracken on March 27, 2018.

The Medicine Hat Tigers battled adversity to build up a 2-0 series over the Wheat Kings in the Western Hockey League’s Eastern Conference quarter-finals, but on Tuesday it was Brandon’s turn.

After getting outscored 14-5 through the first two games of the series, the Wheat Kings entered Game 3 in Dauphin without starting goaltender Logan Thompson — who left in the dying minutes of Game 2 after suffering a lower body injury — and took a 5-3 win from the Tigers to cut Medicine Hat’s lead in the best-of-seven series to 2-1.

Brandon rode the energy at the packed Credit Union Place to a strong start, but Mark Rassell quickly tilted the ice in Medicine Hat’s favour when a broken stick led to an odd-man rush and the Tigers captain beat Wheaties starter Dylan Myskiw for his fourth goal of the series.

Staring down an early deficit for the third time in a row, the Wheat Kings regained their composure and pushed the pace into the final minute of the opening frame, then Ty Lewis beat Tigers goaltender Jordan Hollett with nine seconds left to leave the teams tied after 20 minutes for the first time in the series.

The Wheat Kings picked up right where they left off in the second and Connor Gutenberg gave them their first lead of the post-season when he beat Hollett with a wrist shot from the left circle at the three-minute mark of the middle frame. But the opportunistic Tigers erased the deficit when Gary Haden cut in front of the crease and backhanded a loose puck through Myskiw to set up a winner-take-all third period with his second of the playoffs.

While Jaeger White pushed the Tigers back out in front with his second power play goal of the series just less than six minutes into the third, the Wheat Kings immediately answered in numbers to steal back the lead.

First Ben McCartney drew even on a wraparound 42 seconds after White’s marker then Evan Weinger redirected a feed from Linden McCorrister past Hollett 18 seconds later to push the Tigers onto their heels.

Medicine Hat pressured for an equalizer in the final minutes, but Lewis struck for his second of the evening with less than two minutes left to push the game out of reach and give Brandon their first playoff win since 2016.

Myskiw held on to collect a 32-save victory in his playoff debut. Hollett took the loss on 28 stops.

The Tigers and Wheat Kings return to the ice in Dauphin for Game 4 Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. before making the trip back to the Canalta Centre for Game 5 Friday at 7:30 p.m.

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