Hounds hold Taber to 12 shots

By Ryan McCracken on December 8, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

Defence made the difference on Friday night at the Kinplex.

Medicine Hat Hounds blueliner Caleb Irvine potted a hat trick while helping limit the Taber Golden Suns to 12 shots in an eventual 4-0 victory — pushing the Hounds to within three points of the Lethbridge Hurricanes for the top of the South Central Alberta Hockey League’s midget AA South Conference standings with three games in hand.

“It’s huge,” said Irvine, whose Hounds improved to 10-4-2 with the win. “We know they’re ahead of us but we know we’ve got games in hand and every game matters here.”

The Hounds seized control of momentum in a hurry and managed to limit Okotoks to just six shots through the first 40 minutes, but it took until the dying minutes of the middle frame for Irvine to get a puck past Golden Suns netminder Ethan Barrows.

Irvine repeated the feat with a point shot in the final minute of the frame to give the Hounds some breathing room entering the third. Forward Matt Lafferty tacked with on some insurance midway through the frame, then Irvine completed the hat trick on a late power play to put the game away.

“It felt good,” said Irvine, who had two goals on the season entering Friday’s game. “I was getting pucks up at the point and the boys were getting in front and making it easy.”

Goaltender Teron Funk locked up the shutout victory with a total of 12 stops.

Barrows provided the silver lining for Taber with a 42-save performance, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Golden Suns from slipping to 7-8-2.