NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN Medicine Hat Tigers forward Corson Hopwo battles for a loose puck with Edmonton Oil Kings Dylan Guenther (11) and Wyatt McLeod (6) while goaltender Sebastian Cossa scrambles to recover during a Western Hockey League game on Saturday at the Canalta Centre.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
The Edmonton Oil Kings will sleep soundly over Christmas after earning a bit of breathing room atop the Western Hockey League’s Central Division.
With a two-week break awaiting them at the final horn, the Oil Kings rode an early scoring surge to a 7-1 victory over the Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday night at the Canalta Centre – leaving the Tabbies six points back of the division lead with two games in hand at the unofficial halfway point of the season.
“Going into the break, we wanted to end on a high note,” said Josh Williams, a former Tigers forward who had four points for Edmonton in the win. “(Medicine Hat) is a great team this year. There’s a lot of skill on that side of the rink, so we had to bring in a good game tonight to try and beat them, and that’s what we did.”
Looking to extend their point streak to eight games, the Oil Kings took an early stranglehold on Medicine Hat by lighting the lamp with each of their first three shots.
First Dylan Guenther split the defence and deked his way past Garin Bjorklund just over two minutes into the game, then Matthew Robertson snapped one past the 17-year-old netminder eight seconds later before captain Scott Atkinson added another breakaway goal to silence the crowd of 3,024 in Medicine Hat.
“You can’t give a team like that three breakaways,” said Tigers assistant coach Joe Frazer. “They capitalized on their chances early, and you just can’t spot a team like that three goals then try to come back.”
The Tigers mounted a push back when their league-best five-forward power play unit took the ice near the halfway point of the opening period. While Edmonton killed off the interference infraction to Robertson, Medicine Hat broke through shortly after it expired when Dru Krebs jumped on a loose puck to finish off a goalmouth scramble.
Bjorklund settled into his crease and stopped the next nine shots he faced to carry the two-goal deficit into intermission. But the Oil Kings solved him again halfway through the middle frame when David Kope found Atkinson streaking to the net for his second of the night.
The Tigers kept digging for a way back and newly acquired forward Lukas Svejkovsky appeared to score on a power play midway through the third – but a short video review determined his shot rang off the bar and out.
“The whole game it felt like we were that close, just a bounce away, but obviously we didn’t get it tonight,” said Tigers centre Ryan Chyzowski. “I think we’ve just got to move on and look at what we did bad, where we broke down early and kind of dug ourselves a hole.”
Just 16 seconds after the goal was overturned, Williams took the puck the other way and beat Bjorklund to drive a dagger into any hope for a comeback.
Carter Souch added another goal for good measure on a late power play with Dylan Plouffe in the bin for slashing – giving Williams his fourth point of the night.
“We have to shake it off, but we have to remember how this one feels,” said Tigers captain James Hamblin. “We play Edmonton a lot more throughout the year, so we have to take this feeling and bring it into the next game against them.”
Cossa turned away 28 shots to secure the victory and push Edmonton to a league-best 22-6-5-2 record.
Bjorklund took the loss on 24 saves, dropping Medicine Hat to 22-10-1-0.
“It was definitely a great first half when you look at the grand scheme of things,” said Frazer. “Obviously the last two nights didn’t go our way, but we’ve got to be pleased with the first half and now it’s important that we come back ready for the second half, because it’s a big playoff push.”
The Tigers return to the ice Dec. 27 to face the Broncos in Swift Current.
