Tigers manage handy win

By Ryan McCracken on October 13, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

The Medicine Hat Tigers kept things simple on Friday night at the Canalta Centre.

Ryan Jevne scored twice and Linus Nassen added three points to lead the Tigers to a dominant 4-1 victory over the visiting Prince George Cougars on a night in which puck management was paramount.

“That’s a big part of what you have to do at this level,” said Tigers head coach Shaun Clouston. “If you over-complicate it you start drifting apart and not working together, you make it real tough on yourself. We wanted to make sure we managed the puck — we didn’t want any neutral zone turnovers and we did a good job there.”

Nassen wasted no time giving Medicine Hat the upper hand. The 20-year-old Swedish defenceman opened the scoring just 28 seconds into the game when he stepped into a pass from Tyler Preziuso at the blue line and beat Cougars goaltender Taylor Gauthier with a deflection off a defender in front.

“The boys were ready tonight and it showed out there,” said Nassen. “We talked about puck management a lot. We don’t want to just throw it away.”

Gauthier settled into his crease with seven more saves in the period, but his Cougars were only able to generate three shots on Tabby netminder Mads S¿gaard — starting in his first game at Canalta — through the opening frame.

“It was one of those games where you just try to stay in it as much as possible, just talk and make plays behind the net to stay in the game and not lose your focus,” said S¿gaard, adding the defence kept his job easy with a high number of blocked shots. “It was unreal.”

Preziuso picked the offence back up early in the second period when he raced into Prince George’s end and beat Gauthier off the post for his third goal of the year.

Jevne stretched Medicine Hat’s lead to three goals midway through the middle frame when he jammed his own rebound through Gauthier while driving behind the net. The goal stood as Jevne’s second of the season despite coming on his 39th shot in 10 games.

Prince George finally battled its way onto the scoreboard early in the third after building some momentum with Tigers defenceman Daniel Baker in the box for hooking. While the Tigers killed off the penalty, the Cougars continued to chip away and captain Josh Curtis snapped S¿gaard’s shutout bid with his team’s 12th shot of the game.

“We came out flat and it just kind of went from there. We couldn’t really grab any momentum,” said Curtis. “We had a good third. We got some power plays. We got some good shots on net, quality chances and a coupe posts, too. It could have gone either way in the third but when it comes down to it, it was just too late.”

But the Tigers responded in kind less than a minute later when Austin Crossley was nabbed for holding. It only took seven seconds for Jevne to creep in from the point and cash in on the power play with his second of the night — snuffing out any of Prince George’s remaining momentum while bringing the fans in attendance to their feet.

S¿gaard turned away 22 shots to collect the victory and push Medicine Hat to 4-5-0-1 on the year.

“I like his composure and his demeanour in the net,” said Clouston. “He’s in good spots. He battles real hard with the goalmouth scrambles. He had another strong performance.”

Gauthier settled for a 26-save loss, dropping Prince George to 2-5-0-1.

The Tigers return to the Canalta Centre Saturday to host the Kootenay Ice (3-2-0-0) at 7:30 p.m.

Medicine Hat lost two defencemen in the game, as both Joel Craven and Trevor Longo left the game and did not return — leaving their status for Saturday’s game in question.

“I don’t think Trevor will be available tomorrow, and it’s probably unlikely for Joel,” said Clouston. “We’ve got (Eric) Van Impe ready to come in and we’ll go from there.”

Tigers forward Gary Haden was scratched from Friday’s win. Clouston declined to comment on the playmaker’s status after the game.