Cubs live to see another game

By JAMES TUBB on March 10, 2022.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

The Medicine Hat Cubs aren’t done yet.

The junior B club staved off elimination Tuesday night when they beat the Okotoks Bisons 5-3 to stay alive in the HJHL South final. The Cubs entered Tuesday’s contest down 3-0 in the series after losing 3-2 at home Saturday.

Tuesday’s win marks the first time in over three seasons the Cubs have beat the Bisons, according to head coach and general manager Randy Wong.

Wong, with a very raspy voice after a vocal night behind bench, said the win shows a lot of the character the Cubs have.

“I thought the boys battled hard all game, close in the third – probably too close,” Wong said. “But we’ll take the ‘W’ and we’ll move onto Okotoks Friday night.”

The Cubs were led offensively by Jacob Milne and Cooper Hilworth, who had a hat trick and two goals, respectively.

Medicine Hat carried a 3-1 lead into the third period off Milne’s goals before allowing two straight Okotoks markers to tie it up at 3-3 with 10:35 left in the game.

Cooper Hilworth turned himself into the hero and scored the game-winner with 4:11 remaining before icing the empty netter with four seconds left to secure the win.

The 20-year-old forward said it was great to finally win a game against Okotoks for the first time in his four seasons with the Cubs.

“For some reason we don’t get puck luck against them, and today the puck luck was on our side and the boys were buzzing,” Hilworth said. “Great to win a game finally and we take it back to their barn Friday. Hopefully we can play as good as we did today and we can bring it back to Medicine Hat for Game 6.”

Connor Douglas contributed three assists and Dylan Trembecki had two helpers of his own in the win. Jamal Shaw and Colby Friedrich rounded out the scoring with one assist each.

The series turns back to Okotoks for Game 5 Friday night as the Cubs will once again face another win or go home game.

Wong said they always thought they could beat the Bisons and said hopefully Tuesday’s win leads to confidence in the rest of the series.

“We always thought we could beat them, so that was always in our minds in games against them,” Wong said. “Maybe this gets us over the hump, the mystique of playing and not beating Okotoks, hopefully that is over and we can move forward and have a good game. We are going to battle our butts off Friday night and hopefully come back here Saturday.”

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