NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Jonathan Brinkman holsters his stick after scoring his first Western Hockey League goal against the Swift Current Broncos at the Canalta Centre on Saturday.
The Canalta Centre’s going to need a new goal lamp.
After collecting seven goals through the first three games of their Western Hockey League campaign, the Medicine Hat Tigers erupted for nine straight — including six in the second period — to skate away with a wildly lopsided 10-1 victory over the Swift Current Broncos Saturday.
“Things are starting to click,” said Tigers captain James Hamblin, who had two goals and an assist in the win. “I think we’re starting to play a little bit more together with our lines, and I think we’re just outworking teams and wearing them down. That’s where our goals are coming from.”
Looking to sweep the home-and-home set after Friday’s 2-0 win in Swift, the Tigers came out with some fire beneath their feet. After peppering Broncos netminder Jordan Fairlie with four shots in the first 80 seconds, Danish import Jonathan Brinkman broke down the left wing and picked the top corner for his first Western Hockey League goal, just past the six-minute mark of the opening frame.
Hamblin doubled up on the lead 30 seconds later when he jumped on a turnover in front of Fairlie and threaded the puck into the net for his first of the season. The Tabby captain promptly pulled an imaginary monkey off his back and threw it into the crowd in celebration.
Swift Current earned a chance to respond when Brett Kemp was nabbed for boarding just over a minute later, but Hat netminder Garin Bjorklund stymied the Broncos at every opportunity.
Fresh off the kill, Hamblin picked up a backhand feed from Parker Gavlas while entering the zone and found Tyler Preziuso in the slot for his second of the year — giving Medicine Hat goals on three consecutive shots.
Swift Current managed to outshoot Medicine Hat 13-12 in the period, but things only got worse for the Broncos in the second.
Bryan Lockner kept things rolling four minutes into the middle frame when he stepped into a shot from the slot for his third of the year. Hamblin followed it up with his second of the night on a fancy forehand-backhand deke, then Kemp stretched the lead to six by tipping a feed from Ryan Chyzowski past Fairlie for his first. Cole Sillinger added the extra point onto Medicine Hat’s proverbial touchdown four minutes later — but they still weren’t done.
Lockner tacked on his second of the night with a sharp-angle shot from beside the net just over a minute later, then Nick McCarry netted his first of the year on a soft wrister through the wickets to complete a six-goal second period.
Fairlie was replaced by Isaac Poulter to start the third after allowing nine goals on 30 shots in his WHL debut.
Swift finally put one on the board just over two minutes into the final frame when Tyler Smithies redirected a pass from Kasper Puutio past Bjorklund for his first of the year.
Cole Clayton pushed the Tabbies into double-digit territory midway through the third when he picked up a pass from Noah Danielson and beat Poulter from the point — making him the fifth Tiger to net his first goal in the game, while Danielson became the 10th to log his first assist.
“When you can get a full team contributing, that’s awesome,” said Hamblin. “McCarry played great, actually that whole fourth line played really well.”
“They go out there and they buzz and they work hard.”
Bjorklund stopped 10 shots in the third to lock up the 32-save victory in his season debut — lifting the Tigers to 3-1-0-0 with their first back-to-back wins of the year.
“He had some huge saves,” Hamblin said of Bjorklund. “We kind of let him down a little bit at the end of the second. We let our foot off the gas a little bit and he came up clutch. I wish we could have gotten it for him and kept that one out, but it was a great game.”
Poulter closed out the game with 10 saves. The Broncos slipped to 1-2-0-0 with the loss.
The Tigers complete a three-game weekend Sunday in Calgary against the Hitmen at 4 p.m.
