Medicine Hat Cubs forward Makhi Carriere celebrates his first-period goal in the Cubs' 3-2, Game 2 win Sunday at the Kinplex over the Strathmore Wheatland Kings. The win gives the Cubs a commanding 2-0 lead in the best-of-five series.--NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Cubs have put themselves in the semifinals driver’s seat.
The Cubs earned a commanding 2-0 lead in their best-of-five series with the Strathmore Wheatland Kings after a 5-2 win on the road Saturday before beating Strathmore 3-2 on Sunday.
Medicine Hat scored five unanswered goals through 46 minutes of play Saturday for the win, and managed to rebound from a blown 2-0 lead to pick up the win Sunday and the series command.
It’s a weekend of wins head coach Randy Wong says set themselves up right, and he liked how they competed.
“We changed some systems and guys bought into that, so that was probably the most important part is they were willing to try and it was successful,” Wong said. “Once you get buy-in from a change in the system, it goes a long way when you can have some success right away.
“The plan was to execute that again today, so that part’s good. We gave up a few too many shots (Sunday), on Saturday we were real good, like we were real stingy and didn’t give a lot of breathing room through the neutral zone.”
Medicine Hat outshot Strathmore 24-15 on Saturday, picking up their first win of the season at Strathmore. The Wheatland Kings led the game in shots Sunday, 34-28.
The HJHL’s leading scorer continued his dominance into the playoffs, as Kyle Woolridge scored four goals in the win Saturday and added another tally in Sunday’s victory. He leads the HJHL playoffs in goal scoring with his five markers.
“He’s got good linemates and he’s tough to handle, his work ethic is second to none,” Wong said about Woolridge. “When you have that and the will to want to win, it goes a long way. But execution is key and they are executing at a high level. It’s a pretty explosive line with Caleb (Garrecht) and Nolen (Sutherland). When we put those five guys on for power plays, they’re tough to handle for any team, so it’s good they’re on our side.”
Makhi Carriere scored in both games and Jacob Hazzard potted the game winner in the third period Sunday after Strathmore scored twice in the second to tie it up.
“I just thought about ripping it on net as quick as I could and see what happened from there,” Hazzard said. “It worked out.”
The Cubs will head to Strathmore on Wednesday for Game 3, looking to close out the semifinals series and advance to the third round of the HJHL playoffs for a fourth year in a row.
Wong says the message following Sunday’s win is to fully close the door on Wednesday, don’t let Strathmore even believe they can win Game 3, let alone come back in the series. To make that happen, he says they’ll lean on their leadership group, which has been on both ends of a decisive game in the playoffs.
“We’ve kind of been through Game threes, that elimination game, they’ve been there and we’ve been on both sides of it,” Wong said. “So the guys kind of felt it over the last few years and know what they’re getting with it, whether you go round two or three as a win or a loss, it’s all experience.
“So they know what to do, they know what to say and they know how to lead. For the most part, our leaders, our older guys, are leading by example and that’s the real key.”
If needed, Game 4 of the series would return to the Kinplex on Friday.
HJHL playoffs
On the other side of the South division, the Okotoks Bisons hold a 2-0 series lead over the Cochrane Generals after a 3-2 win Saturday and a 4-3 overtime victory Sunday.
Game 3 of that series is Friday at Okotoks.
In the North division, the HJHL-leading Sylvan Lake Wranglers have a 2-0 series lead over the Airdrie Thunder.
Sylvan Lake won Game 1 4-2 Friday and took Game 2 5-2 on Saturday. Game 3 is Friday.
The Red Deer Vipers hold a 1-0 series lead over the Mountainview Colts with a 5-0 Game 1 win Saturday. Game 2 of the series was Monday in Three Hills, but was not complete by press time. Game 3 is set for Wednesday in Red Deer.
