Cubs keeping heads high after loss to Coaldale

By RYAN MCCRACKEN on February 23, 2019.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken

RYAN MCCRACKEN

Twitter: MHNMcCracken

The Medicine Hat Travelodge Cubs were dealt their first loss of the Heritage Junior Hockey League post-season on Friday night in a 3-1 loss to the Coaldale Copperheads at the Kinplex, but they’re keeping their heads held high.

While it leaves the Cubs in a 1-1 stalemate through two games of their best-of-seven Southern Division semifinal series and shifts home ice advantage back in favour of the Copperheads, Hat head coach JD Gaetan says his squad still isn’t fazed.

“We’re confident that we’re still going to make a series of this. We knew it was going to be a long one,” said Gaetan, adding Cubs goaltender Brett Vanderveer nearly stole another win with a 38-save performance in front of 866 fans at the Kinplex. “The last two weeks of the season and into the playoffs, he’s really been kicking for us and turning it up to another gear. We need that.”

Goaltending was on the forefront early. Although the Cubs outchanced the Copperheads 14-10 in the opening frame, both Vanderveer and Coaldale’s Nolan Berner kept the red lights switched off through 20 minutes.

Both teams were given a handful of chances to push out in front during a penalty-laden second period. A total 62 minutes of penalties and misconducts were handed out in the frame, including 44 to the Copperheads and a game misconduct to Coaldale’s Tyler Strath for a check from behind – but again the goaltending prevailed to set the stage for a winner-take-all third period.

“I think they’re realizing that they’re not going to walk all over us. We’re not some doormat,” said Cubs forward Noah Irvine. “For the most part, in both games I felt like we outworked them.”

The Copperheads snapped the stalemate nine minutes into the final frame when Jayden Bexte chipped a cross-crease feed from Ty Abbott behind Vanderveer on an odd-man rush, then Linden Gouw added some crucial insurance a few minutes later. The goals capped off a sizeable shift in momentum for Coaldale – who entered the period trailing 31-19 in shots but took over a 37-36 edge on Gouw’s tally.

“Our message was that we needed to get back to what we do,” said Copperheads head coach Danton Shigemi. “I don’t think we really got into the playoff mentality yet, so that third was key for us an hopefully we can bring that into Game 3.”

The Cubs pressured for some life following Gouw’s marker, but Jared Bainbridge turned things the other way and pushed the game out of reach a few minutes later.

“We played well through the first two and a half periods. We stopped hitting and kind of let them in the game,” said Gaetan. “Our game is when we’re in your face hitting bodies. We saw that the last couple of games, that’s when we’re more dominant.”

Medicine Hat finally broke Berner’s shutout bid when Fletcher Aleman blasted a feed from Cooper Hilworth into the netting with less than three minutes left in regulation. While they were unable to erase the gap and settled for their first loss of the post-season as a result, Irvine says there’s still some confidence to be gained through solving Berner.

“It helps,” said Irvine. “He’s a really good goalie, so if we can squeak one past him and hopefully build off that leading into (Game 3) it’s awesome.”

The Southern Division champion Copperheads entered this series as the unanimous favourite, but after battling with the Cubs for a pair of games Shigemi admits it’s been more of a challenge than initially anticipated.

“They’re a different team than we saw in the regular season, that’s for sure. They’ve definitely stepped their game up to a playoff level,” said Shigemi. “It took us a little bit to get going. Obviously we didn’t like our game in Game 1 and didn’t like our game in most of this one, but we managed to put together a good third and came out on top.”

The Cubs and Copperheads go back at it for Game 3 on Saturday in Coaldale at 8 p.m.

Share this story: