NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Gavin Kor celebrates his first WHL goal, coming in the third period of his WHL debut, a 3-2 win Tuesday at Co-op Place over the Spokane Chiefs in a rematch of the 2025 WHL Finals.
The Medicine Hat Tigers tack on a sixth win over the Spokane Chiefs in 2025.
The Tigers scored three unanswered goals Tuesday night at Co-op Place to comeback and beat their 2025 WHL Finals opponent 3-2 in a rematch of the Championship Series. They beat Spokane 4-1 in the WHL Championship Series to capture the franchise’s sixth Ed Chynoweth Cup after beating the Chiefs during the January U.S. division road trip.
Medicine Hat held off a flurry late in the game Tuesday as Spokane had a six-on-four for the last 1:19 with Jordan Switzer turning aside 27 shots in the win. The late penalty kill, their third of the night, iced the win.
“Our penalty kill has been outstanding all year, it’s been unbelievable,” head coach Willie Desjardins said. “You look at all the games, that’s the third or fourth game now, late in the game, we’ve been six-onp-four and we’ve gotten out of it. There have been lots of chances. Our kill in Calgary gave us a chance on that five minute major, so our kill has been outstanding. Lots of good guys, your goaltender has to be your best guy and Switz, he was really good.”
Spokane opened the spring with the lone tally of the first.
Forward Cohen Harris was the first to a dump-in inside the Tigers zone and he just threw the puck on net, catching Jordan Switzer by surprise. Harris’ first of the season, assisted by Sam Oremba and Rhett Sather, had the Chiefs ahead 1-0 just 3:09 into the first period.
The Chiefs bumped their lead to 2-0 on a breakaway goal in the second.
Elias Pul picked up the puck in the neutral zone and split a pair of Tigers’ defenders before scoring on Switzer for his first WHL goal in his debut. The goal put Spokane ahead 2:17 into the frame.
Switzer says he apologized to the team for the first goal and he focused on helping secure the win after that.
“The guy caught me sleeping,” Switzer said. “The second one it’s a breakaway, 50/50 chance. But I thought I buckled it down good for a group to let us come back and that’s ultimately my job as a starter.”
After a slow start, the Tigers got on the board and tied the game up after 40 minutes.
Defenceman Veeti Väisänen fired a shot on Carter Esler that ricocheted off his pads back to the Finnish blue liner. He skated behind the Spokane net and fed fellow defenceman Kyle Heger in front for the tap-in. Yaroslav Bryzglaov had the second assist on Heger’s goal, the defenceman’s first marker in the WHL, cutting Spokane’s lead to 2-1 at 5:29.
They drew to a tie score in the last minute of the second. A clear down the ice from Väisänen wasn’t played by Spokane defenders and Bryzgalov picked it up, paused before beating Esler for the 2-2 score with 21 seconds left in the frame.
Bryzgalov finished with three points, factoring in on all three goals for the Tigers.
“It feels awesome first of all and second, we just did our job,” Bryzgalov said. “We just want to win.”
Jonas Woo took a hard fall early in the third, losing his footing behind the Tigers net on a penalty kill, falling back-first into the boards. He was helped off the ice by a trainer before heading down the tunnel, returning for a power play minutes later.
They avoided the blow to the back-end, already missing Niilopekka Muhonen who is day to day and overage defenceman Josh Van Mulligen who is out week to week. Forward Kade Stengrim was scratched for the first time this season, out with the flu Desjardins says.
The Tigers grabbed their first lead of the night after a wave of chances in the first half of the third.
They put pressure on Spokane and finally scored. Bryzgalov, to the left of Esler, sent a pass to Gavin Kor at the door step and he scored his first WHL goal in his debut. Kor missed the first eight games due to injury and he was elated to score in his first chance.
” It was awesome, it’s always a little bit tough coming back and playing after injury, but just an unreal pass by Bryzgalov to be honest, to get it to me there, I didn’t really have to do much for the tap-in.”
Volotovskii had the second assist as the Tigers led 3-2 8:38 into the third.
The Tigers pushed for a fourth before switching to contain, looking to shut down and secure a seventh in. Spokane had their chances, 2026 NHL Draft prospect Mathis Preston was left all alone at the net front with Coco Armstrong and the pair had three chances, all turned aside by Switzer.
Later in the frame, Cam Parr blocked a shot and on the ensuing line change, the Tigers took a too many men penalty with 1:29 left in the game. The power play, paired with a pulled goalie, set Spokane up 6-on-4 for the home stretch.
They fired chance after chance towards the net either blocked or turned aside by Switzer as the Tigers held on for the 3-2 win. Switzer says those last minute moments, up by just one, are some of his favourite in the league with the 3,380 in attendance cheering them on.
” The fans are going, all the boys are blocking shots and making it easier on me and that comes back to the brotherhood,” Switzer said. “We love that stuff, we love battling really hard for each other and it’s good that we got the two points.
Across the ice from Switzer, Esler made 30 saves. The Tigers outshot Spokane 33-29, the Chiefs won the face-off battle 28-26.
The Tigers (7-2) head on the road for the B.C. road trip, starting Saturday in Victoria against the Royals.
