NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Oasiz Wiesblatt celebrates his last second, first period goal in the Tigers 4-1 win Saturday night at Co-op Place against the Kelowna Rockets.
The Medicine Hat Tigers sent their fans home and into the holidays on a high note Saturday night.
The Tigers held onto a second period lead and beat the Kelowna Rockets 4-1 at Co-op Place. Medicine Hat came into the contest off a 6-3 loss to the Red Deer Rebels on Friday. Associate coach Joe Frazer says Saturday’s win was a great bounce back for the Tigers.
“We know we didn’t play our best last night, I thought it started (tonight) with getting above the puck a lot better tonight, which led to us creating some turnovers and being able to use our transition game,” Frazer said.
Saturday night was the first time the Tigers and Kelowna matched up since the 2018-19 season. It was the visiting Rockets who got on the board first, with Grady Lenton firing a shot up and over Beckett Langkow 11:45 into the first period. Lenton’s goal was the only blip on Tigers net minder Beckett Langkow’s night, coming out with a 13 save win for his 13th victory on the year. It wasn’t the busiest night in net for Langkow but the Vegreville product says he stays focused with his own routine.
“I try to do drink some water, go for a skate,” Langkow said. “Just have to have to not overcomplicate things and just focus on the next shots.”
The Tigers tied the game up with 0.6 seconds left in the first period when Oasiz Wiesblatt found the back of the net for his 15th goal of the year. Brayden Boehm and Pasha Bocharov had the assists on Wiesblatt’s tying goal that brought the crowd of 2,076 Tigers faithful to their feet.
Only 5:50 into the second frame, the Tigers potted the game winner when Tyler Mackenzie knocked in a loose puck in front of Kelowna goaltender Talyn Boyko. Cru Hanas had the lone assist on MacKenzie’s 12th goal of the year.
Medicine Hat carried the one goal lead into the third period before cementing their lead over halfway through the frame. Dallon Melin found himself on a mini-breakaway after a pass from Shane Smith and scored his seventh goal of the year. Cayden Lindstrom had the second assist on Melin’s goal. Just 2:55 later, Lindstrom took a pass from Melin and fired home his ninth goal of the year. Kurtis Smythe had the second goal on the fourth and final goal of the game.
Melin says the win Saturday showed character from the Tigers.
“It was really good, this isn’t an easy game to play in with Christmas coming up, but I thought we all played really hard,” Melin said.
Having played eight games in the last 10 days, Lindstrom says they are looking forward to the time off.
“We were pretty, pretty hot here this last last couple of weeks and we’ve been playing pretty hard so I think it should be good coming back,” Lindstrom said.
The Tigers hit the holiday break with a record of 13-17-4-1, which puts them in eighth place of the Eastern conference and in the final playoff spot. After the Christmas break, the Tigers return to action Dec. 27th with a road game to Lethbridge and then their return to Co-op Place on December 28th for their first meeting of the season against the Swift Current Broncos.
“We want to wish a Merry Christmas and a Happy Holidays to all of the fans and we truly appreciate the support,” Frazer said.
