NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
Medicine Hat Travelodge Cubs forward Tristan Stensrud chases down a loose puck during the first period of Saturday's Heritage Junior Hockey League game against the Mountainview Colts at the Kinpex.
Medicine Hat News
The Medicine Hat Travelodge Cubs are heating up.
After opening the season at 1-4-2, the Cubs collected six points over the past three days following a 5-4 win over the Cochrane Generals Friday, a 4-1 victory over the Mountainview Colts Saturday and a 7-6 overtime win against the Blackfalds Wranglers Sunday.
Chandler Aleman and Tavin Straub both left the ice in Blackfalds after scoring a hat trick and adding an assist to lead Medicine Hat back from a late two-goal deficit and force an overtime victory and push the Cubs to 4-4-2 on the Heritage Junior Hockey League season.
The Cubs jumped to an early lead on a pair of first-period goals from Straub and Fletcher Aleman, but the Wranglers pushed back with four goals in the second — two Austin Lawson and individuals from Austin Kalev and Taite Opdendries — to carry a 4-3 lead into the third.
Straub knotted the game up on a power play early in the third, then the Wranglers snapped back with two goals from Braden Olsen to leave the Cubs on their heels.
That’s when Chandler Aleman and Straub struck in succession to force overtime and Aleman pulled the rug in sudden death to complete the perfect weekend.
Cubs goaltender Ryan Arrigo stopped 15-of-18 before leaving in favour of Brett Vanderveer, who picked up the win with 21 stops.
Kaleb Virgo took the loss on 34 saves, dropping Blackfalds to 2-4-2.
On Saturday it was Desmond Crawford who did the heavy lifting with a hat trick against Mountainview.
The Colts logged their lone goal of the contest in the final minute of the first to knot up a 1-1 game following an opening tally from Crawford and they looked poised to escape the period in a tie, but the Cubs forward struck again with 39 seconds left in the frame to give Medicine Hat an edge at the break.
Logan Robertson stretched the lead to a pair with a goal midway through the second period, then Crawford finished off his hat trick with an empty netter in the dying seconds of regulation.
Vanderveer stopped 37-of-38 shots from Mountainview to lock up the win.
Griffin Andrew stopped 32 in the loss, dropping the Colts to 7-3-0.
The Cubs kicked off their weekend by shaking off a two-goal deficit and coming back to top the Cochrane Generals thanks in part to three points from Straub and two goals from Chandler Aleman.
Taylor Girard gave Cochrane a narrow edge after 20 minutes then Chris Sambrook doubled up on the Generals’ lead early in the third before the Cubs responded.
Cooper Hillworth started the road back for Medicine Hat with a timely shorthanded goal midway through the frame.
The Generals responded with another out of Sambrook, and a late marker from Benjamin Davidson but the Cubs split the difference with tallies from Chandler Aleman andTeagan Berko to knot things up after 40 minutes then Straub added Medicine Hat’s second shorthanded goal of the night to secure the victory in the third.
Arrigo collected the 30-save win for Medicine Hat, while Knute Loe stopped 25 in the loss for Cochrane.
The Cubs are back on the ice Saturday in Strathmore against the Wheatland Kings.
