NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Cayden Lindstrom embraces linemate Dallon Melin after scoring the eventual game winning goal Saturday night in a playoff clinching 4-3 victory over the Swift Current Broncos at Co-op Place.
The Medicine Hat Tigers have put themselves in the dance for the WHL championship.
The Tigers punched their ticket to the WHL playoffs Saturday night, beating the Swift Current Broncos 4-3 at Co-op Place in the 68th and final game of the season.
“Going into this year, this was our main goal and for it to come down to the last game is pretty crazy. I don’t think you can write it up any better,” net minder Beckett Langkow said. “I’m just really proud of the group, we battled all the way.”
The 19-year-old made 21 saves for his 25th win on the season to give Medicine Hat a final regular season record of 30-29-8-1.
Medicine Hat entered Saturday’s contest off a 3-1 loss Friday in Swift Current and needing the win to get in the playoffs and avoid any potential play-in games. Head coach Willie Desjardins says the win Saturday night says a lot about his team heading into the playoffs.
“Swift Current is a really good team, they’re big, they’re strong but even in Swift, we stayed in there, and we played hard, which was good,” Desjardins said. “But coming here, that was a big goal to get up by two was huge for us. We’re able to play our young guys throughout and that was a difference. I was playing four lines, six defencemen and they didn’t. It says a lot for our young guys.”
The Tigers trailed early in the game with Swift Current’s Connor Hvidston scoring 3:16 into the game to put the visitors ahead. Josh Davies capitalized on a Broncos power play just under five minutes later as they led 2-0 after 20 minutes.
Medicine Hat wasted no time in the second period getting the crowd of 4,506 to their feet, with Tyler MacKenzie scoring 14 seconds into the middle frame. Gavin McKenna and Brendan Lee had the assists on MacKenzie’s 18th. Just 7:38 later, Oasiz Wiesblatt scored on a Tigers power play for his 26th of the season and the 2-2 tie. McKenna and Hodass had the helpers.
The Tigers pulled ahead with 4:25 left in the second period again on the power play. Dallon Melin was parked in front of the net and knocked in a loose puck generated from a Dru Krebs point shot for the 3-2 lead. Tomas Mrsic had the second assist on Melin’s 16th of the season, a goal he’ll remember.
“It’s a huge game and I didn’t know, it could have been the last game my career,” Melin said. “Obviously we’re going to push into the playoffs here but it’s definitely an amazing feeling.”
After both teams fired off 10 shots in the first period the Tigers led the category 26-14 after 40 minutes.
Medicine Hat got on the board early in the first again with the eventual game winner. Brayden Boehm had the puck along the boards and wired a pass to the slot where a waiting Cayden Lindstrom fired the puck into the back of the net for his 19th and most important goal on the year. Rhett Parsons had the second assist putting Medicine Hat ahead 4-2 with 14 minutes left in the game.
“The mindset (today) was just to to work hard andget the puck in deep, Lindstrom said. “Boehmer got it in hard on the forecheck, he’s new on our line and he’s a fast, good, skill player, good vision, he just hit me in the middle and it just felt great.”
Swift Current answered back just over the halfway mark of the third with a power play marker from Josh Filmon but it was the last goal of the game.
The Tigers held withstood a pulled good onslaught by the Broncos before securing the 4-3 victory and the playoff berth. Across the ice from Langkow Reid Dyck made 26 saves for Swift Current.
The Tigers will face the Winnipeg ICE, who were the regular season champions, in round one. Game 1 is set for March 31st.
See Tuesday’s Medicine Hat News for a full story on Saturday’s clinching win and see Friday’s paper for a playoff preview.
