Cubs collect three points through weekend homestand

By Ryan McCracken on December 10, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

The Medicine Hat Travelodge Cubs shook off a stinging 6-5 overtime loss to the High River Flyers and rallied to a 6-3 victory over the Blackfalds Wranglers on Sunday at the Kinplex to close out their weekend homestand with three points.

Cooper Hilworth potted a pair and added an assist while the defence held Blackfalds to just 17 shots to push the Cubs within five points of third place in the Heritage Junior Hockey League’s Southern Division with a 9-12-3 record.

“We came out hard today,” said Cubs head coach JD Gaetan. “We only gave up two shots in the first period and kind of rolled from there.”

Hilworth opened the scoring Sunday, then Brody Ryan tacked on to leave Blackfalds down by a pair after 20 minutes. Hilworth struck again to open the second, then Chandler Aleman added another before the Wranglers finally pushed back.

Spencer Otto broke the goose egg for Blackfalds, but Cubs captain Quinten Karg immediately responded with one of his own.

“I thought we bounced back really well tonight. We pulled together and got the two points,” said Karg. “We did really well on the back end and it showed.”

Dylan Scheunert and Austin Lawson added consolation markers for the Wranglers.

Cubs goaltender Brett Vanderveer left the net after allowing two goals on five shots through 28 minutes. Riley Tucker stopped 13-of-14 in relief.

Wranglers starter Lane Brann got the hook after allowing five goals on 22 shots, then Danyon Lorencz stopped 15 in relief.

The victory follows up a painful overtime loss to the Flyers Saturday, though Gaetan says he was still satisfied with the effort from his players.

“I think we played well,” he said. “There were just a couple of bad bounces that kind of killed it on us.”

Noah Irvine and Jack Hilworth gave Medicine Hat an early 2-0 lead, but High River’s Joshua Fleck and Brennan McPherson answered back to erase the deficit in the second.

The Cubs and Flyers then traded goals, with Cooper Hilworth taking back the lead before Josh Russo drew even yet again, before Jharin Bantugan gave High River their first lead of the night early in the third.

Irvine scored his second to knot the game up, then High River’s Michael McTighe and Cooper Hilworth exchanged markers to set up overtime.

McTighe put the game away late in the overtime frame, sending the Flyers to victory despite being outshot 55-43 by Medicine Hat.

“We’ve just been trying to eliminate every mistake we can. That’s how you’re going to win hockey games in this league. First place through last place, any team can win on any given night, and the way you do that is to eliminate the mistakes.”

Max Johnston collected the victory for High River with a 50-save effort. Tucker took the loss after stopping 23-of-26 in relief of Vanderveer.

The Cubs return to the ice Friday in High River against the Flyers.

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