PHOTO COURTESY KEITH HERSHMILLER PHOTOGRAPHY
Medicine Hat Tigers net kinder Jordan Switzer looks up after making one of his 36 saves in a 2-0 shutout win Friday at Regina over the Pats
Friday night’s are for celebrating the 40’s in life.
The Medicine Hat Tigers recorded win No. 40 on the season with a 2-0 shut-out win Friday at Regina the Pats led by net minder Jordan Switzer. The 18-year-old stopped all 36 shots he faced for his third shutout in a row, running a 2:09:43 shutout streak.
Switzer blanked the Regina Pats 1-0 on Feb. 15 at Co-op Place to start the streak, holding the Kamloops Blazers scoreless in a 5-0 win Feb. 22, also at home, for the first two games of the streak.
With the win, Medicine Hat sweeps the season series against the Pats 5-0.
The Tigers played Friday with a shorthanded lineup, with forward Gavin McKenna serving the first game of his three-game suspension handed out Wednesday.
They were also without forward Kadon McCann who did not practise Wednesday but skated Thursday in a non-contact jersey. McCann had played in 133 straight regular season and playoff games entering Friday.
The Tigers recalled forward prospect Luke Ruptash for the game, his sixth appearance at the WHL level. He’s spent the majority of the season with the Dunmore-based South Alberta Hockey Academy of the Canadian Sport School Hockey League.
The Tigers opened the scoring a little over 10 minutes into the game.
Liam Ruck had the puck in the Regina end, skating in on net with two defenders behind him. He stopped up at the bottom of the circles, firing a spin-o-rama, back-handed pass to a streaking Marcus Pacheco who tapped inhis 12th of the season.
It was an almost replication of the highlight-reel goal McKenna scored in the win over Kamloops, spinning to break free off a pair of defenders before backhanding a pass to Hunter St. Martin for a tap-in in the second period against the Blazers.
Marcus Ruck had the second assist on Pacheco’s goal, putting the Tigers ahead 1-0 at 11:10 and after 20 minutes.
Medicine Hat outshot the Pats 10-9 in the frame. They also led the second in shots, 11-10.
Regina put on a push in the third period to tie the game up, outshooting the Tigers 17-6 in the frame but were held off the board by Switzer who continued to stand on his head, preserving his shutout bid.
The Pats pulled the goalie with a little over two minutes left in the game but it was the Tigers who capitalized. Captain Oasiz Wiesblatt scored on the wide-open cage with 1:16 left in the game. Hunter St. Martin had the lone assist on Wiesblatt’s 29th of the season.
Across the ice from Switzer, Kelton Pyne made 25 saves. The Tigers won the face-off battle 37-27, both teams went 0-0 on the power play.
The Tigers (40-17-3-1) head to Brandon on Saturday to face the Wheat Kings, their final matchup with the East division opponent. They return to Co-op Place on Tuesday to host the Kelowna Rockets and former Tiger defenceman Nate Corbet.
