NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Kadon McCann celebrates his first of two goals in a 10-4 win Tuesday night at Co-op Place over the Regina Pats.
Truckers driving around Medicine Hat Tuesday night heard a loud 10-4 coming out of Co-op Place.
The Tigers put up 10 goals on the Regina Pats, beating the East division squad 10-4 for their seventh straight win. It’s the longest win streak of the 2024-25 season and second time this year they’ve beat the Pats with a score of 10, winning 10-5 at Regina on Nov. 1.
Defenceman Josh Van Mulligen finished with three assists on the night and the Medicine Hat product liked their effort through the ups and downs of the win.
“This time of the year, it’s really important just getting two points every single night, that’s our main focus,” Van Mulligen said. “We have a nice little streak going here, so it was a good effort. We had a little lapse there in the second but we did a good job resetting and came out with the two points.
Jordan Switzer faced only 17 shots, making 13 saves for his 17th win of the season.
The Tigers opened the scoring in a big way, with a 4-0 lead after 20 minutes much to the delight of the 3,475 in attendance.
Kadon McCann scored 1:20 into the game, with Hunter St. Martin capitalizing on a turnover before sending a pass to McCann.
They made it 2-0 at the 10-minute mark with a redirected shot from the point. Misha Volotovskii sent a pass from his knees to Bryce Pickford at the point and the WHL defencemen goal leader fired a shot that was tipped in by Ethan Neutens for his fourth.
The lead grew to 3-0 at 15:49 with a power play goal from Oasiz Wiesblatt. Gavin McKenna had the puck up near the point and sent a pass to the Tigers’ captain at the side of the net for the tap-in and his 20th on the year. Tanner Molendyk had the second assist, extending his point streak to seven games. McKenna’s helper extended his league-leading point streak to 20 games.
Medicine Hat struck for the final time in the frame at 17:25. Ryder Ritchie finished off a set of passes from McKenna and Wiesblatt. The goal extends Ritchie’s point streak to seven games.
A back and forth middle frame started with the Tigers finding twine.
On a power play, Liam Ruck fired a shot past Kelton Pyne for the 5-0 lead 4:18 into the second. Van Mulligan had the puck at the point and sent it to Markus Ruck on the bench-side wall before he sent a no-look pass to his younger twin brother for his 14th goal of the season.
Regina got on the board exactly a minute later, with Zach Lansard scoring on two-man breakaway, getting the tap-in off a pass from Julien Maze. Zach Pantelakis had the second assist on his fifth of the season.
Medicine Hat regained the five-goal lead with another power play marker. St. Martin fired a shot on net that created a rebound in front for Jonas Woo to knock in and record his seventh goal of the season. Liam Ruck had the second assist with the lead 6-1 at 8:35.
Regina stormed back with a pair of goals in the second half of the period.
Jace Egland fired a shot from the high-slot beating Switzer at 11:20 for his fourth of the season. Ashton Brown and Cameron Kuzma had the helpers.
The Pats made it a 6-3 game 4:05 later, with Zach Moore knocking in a rebound as a power play expired. Maze and former Tiger defenceman Matt Paranych had the assists on Moore’s ninth. Tuesday was Paranych’s first game back in Medicine Hat since being traded to Regina on Dec. 13, 2024.
The Tigers led the game in shots 26-14 after 40 minutes. McCann liked their response after a down second period with a return to their game.
” Just kept it simple, in the second there we got away from our game taking longer shifts and that starts my line and and me personally, getting away from taking short, hard shifts,” McCann said. “We have four great lines and three d-pairings who can play hockey, so it’s a step for us.”
They carried the momentum early in the third, with Marcus Pacheco scoring 23 seconds into the frame on a two-on-one breakaway with McCann. Van Mulligen had the assists on Pacheco’s eighth.
Regina responded at 2:08 with a power play snipe from Caden Brown. Reese Hamilton and Ephram McNutt had the assists on his 15th.
The Tigers took control after that, scoring three unanswered goals for the 10-4 final.
McCann and Pacheco teamed up again on another two-on-one breakaway, with the former recording his second of the night on for his ninth on the year. Ritchie also found the back of the net for his second of the night, scoring off a slick pass from McKenna for his 17th. Wiesblatt had the second assist.
The final goal of the game came at 14:14, with Liam Ruck scoring his 15th of the season, redirecting a shot from Van Mulligen at the point on a power play. St. Martin recorded the secondary assist for his fourth helper on the night. Liam Ruck says he has the easy job on the Tigers’ power play, finding the benefit in the win.
“There’s some pretty good passers that I’m playing with on the power play, so it makes my job easy,” Ruck said.
The Tigers won the face-off battle 40-33 and outshot the Pats 46-17. Across the ice from Switzer, Pyne finished with 36 saves. Medicine Hat was 4/5 on the power play, Regina went 1/4. Eight Tigers finished with multi point nights.
Head coach Willie Desjardins credited the Tigers’ special teams in the win.
“We had a good power play tonight,” Desjardins said. “We had a good start, just an average second period, but a good third period. Regina has some speed though, they’re a hard team to play, they create some things. But they’re a young team, so it’s a tough one for them.”
The Tigers (28-15-2) are off for the U.S. road trip, starting the six game in nine day trip at Spokane on Friday against the Chiefs. Desjardins hopes they learn from the win and continue momentum on the road.
“It’s nice to win, you just have to recognize why you’re winning,” Desjardins said. “Tonight, we weren’t consistent throughout. The Calgary series was pretty good, so we have a lot of work to go. This road trip is a really hard road trip, so we’re going to have to play better on the road.”
