Medicine Hat Tigers (from left) Dalton Gally, David Quenneville, Mark Rassell and James Hamblin celebrate Quenneville's first-period goal during Wednesday's Western Hockey League game against the Edmonton Oil Kings at the Canalta Centre. -- NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken
The Medicine Hat Tigers left nothing to chance on Wednesday night at the Canalta Centre.
After dropping six one-goal games over the past 11 contests and limping through a B.C. Division road trip with four consecutive setbacks, the Medicine Hat Tigers returned home and rallied to a resounding 6-0 victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings thanks to a commanding four-goal first period.
Tyler Preziuso started the early onslaught less than three minutes into his return from a head injury. The 19-year-old Victoria product jumped on a rebound in the slot and fired the puck past Oil Kings goaltender Josh Dechaine for his 12th of the season after taking a puck to the head on Jan. 26 and missing the next five games.
The Tigers kept the pedal down and David Quenneville doubled up on the lead while re-establishing an edge in the WHL’s defensive scoring race midway through the frame. The 19-year-old Edmonton product stepped into a drop pass from Mark Rassell and blasted the ensuing slapshot through Dechaine for his league-leading 60th point and 22nd goal of the year.
But they weren’t done there. Rassell continued the pressure by holding the offensive zone to keep an attack alive then Quenneville cut down low and fed Ryan Chyzowski for a tap-in to leave the Oil Kings reeling.
While Edmonton had a chance to stop the bleeding when Tigers defenceman Dalton Gally was nabbed for hooking in the final two minutes of the first, Rassell struck shorthanded for his 43rd goal of the season to give Medicine Hat plenty of breathing room after 20 minutes.
Despite the lopsided score, Tigers goaltender Michael Bullion had to be sharp in the early going. The overage Alaskan — recently given exclusive No. 1 status with Jordan Hollett on the shelf for 4-to-6 weeks due to a lower body injury — turned aside 10 shots in the opening frame, including a key breakaway save on streaking Oil Kings forward Trey Fix-Wolansky.
Edmonton brought a stronger effort to the second period and managed to hold the Tigers without a shot for the first eight minutes of the frame, but Bullion kept them at bay with 13 more saves to keep Medicine Hat’s commanding lead intact.
While the Oil Kings continued to pressure Bullion in the third, the Hat netminder refused to let a puck slip past him and Gary Haden put the game out of reach by tapping home a rebound for his 14th of the year, then Josh Williams added another to ice the game with 3.3 seconds left in regulation to send the 2,771 in attendance home happy.
Bullion turned aside a total of 31 saves to lock up his second shutout of the season — and the fifth of his career — while lifting the Tigers to 27-22-7-0 on the year.
Dechaine stopped 33 in the loss, dropping Edmonton to 14-31-5-2.
The Tigers return to the Canalta Centre Friday to kick off a home-and-home set with the Calgary Hitmen at 7:30 p.m.
