Medicine Hat News
The Medicine Hat Tigers welcome the Kamloops Blazers to Canalta Centre tonight (7 p.m.), hoping to do something they last did in October — win three games in a row.
On the heels of a 4-2 home win against Regina Saturday and last Wednesday’s 6-5 overtime victory in Moose Jaw, the Tigers will look to replicate their last three-game win streak which happened Oct. 12-19.
Medicine Hat lost both matchups with Kamloops last year, though both were on the road. The last time they beat the Blazers was in 2016, was a third win in a row and came as part of a five-game win streak.
The Blazers are 0-1-1-0 in their season-long six-game road swing through the Central Division. They lost Saturday in overtime to Edmonton, then dropped a 6-3 decision in Calgary Sunday. In both cases it was teddy bear toss night for the home side, and 18,000 fans showed up both to Rogers Place and the Scotiabank Saddledome.
Tuesday’s crowd in Red Deer was a far more tame 3,289. Kamloops lost to the Rebels 2-1 and are now 12-13-2-1. They finish their trip with a game Friday in Cranbrook and another Saturday in Lethbridge.
Zane Franklin leads the Blazers with 17 goals and 33 points.
The Tigers now have four 10-goal scorers in James Hamblin (15), Ryan Jevne (14), Tyler Preziuso (12) and Ryan Chyzowski (11).
On special teams, the Blazers have the WHL’s fifth-ranked power play unit (25.2 per cent efficiency), not far ahead of 10th-place Medicine Hat (24 per cent). The Tigers are seventh on the penalty kill however (79.8 per cent), while Kamloops is 15th (76 per cent). Kamloops also averages the second-most penalty minutes per game at 15.4, while the Tigers take the second-least, 8.2.
The Tigers are in Red Deer Friday before hosting Kelowna Saturday. After that they’ve got nearly two weeks until their Dec. 28 home game against Kootenay.
