NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
Coaldale Copperheads goaltender Broc Merkl and Medicine Hat Cubs forward Tavin Straub tumble to the ice in an altercation in front of the gate following Straub's ejection in Sunday's Heritage Junior Hockey League home opener at the Kinplex. Coaldale won 5-1.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
Bad blood boiled over on Sunday afternoon at the Kinplex.
With the Coaldale Copperheads in town for the first time since eliminating the Medicine Hat Cubs from the Heritage Junior Hockey League playoffs last season, it didn’t take long for the rivalry to reach a focal point.
Trailing 2-0 late in the second period, Cubs forward Tavin Straub was ejected for a high cross check. On his way off the ice, Straub exchanged a few choice words with Copperheads netminder Broc Merkl and within seconds a bench brawl erupted just inside the open gate.
“As I was coming down the goalie kind of said something so I turned around and he came up to me. Then it started another little brawl there,” said Straub, whose Cubs went on to lose the home opener 5-1. “Obviously we kind of got in the box a lot. That got the best of us this game, I think. But looking at the shots out there it was pretty close. I think it was ours to have, we just got caught up pretty bad in that stuff and that definitely bit us in the butt.”
Forty penalty minutes were handed out due to the altercation, including an instigating minor to Merkl – who was ejected along with Straub and Cubs captain Tavin Stadnicki.
“When we get involved in that stuff it just takes us right off our game. We get dragged into their style and it does us no favours,” said Cubs co-coach JD Gaetan. “It takes all flow away from the game. I thought at the end of the first we actually started to put a little pressure on – I think we were actually leading the shots by that point.”
Brandyn Howg extended Coaldale’s lead to three on a two-man advantage in the dying minutes of the second, shortly after Straub and Merkl went at it in the corner.
Medicine Hat mustered a response from Fletcher Aleman early in the third, but Howg and Jayden Bexte answered back for Coaldale to push the game out of reach.
“We play a lot so games get heated, obviously. There were a lot of penalties in that one,” said Copperheads captain Tyler Anderson. “It was getting out of control there a little bit, but we did a good job keeping calm and not reacting.”
Coaldale took a 1-0 lead into the first intermission thanks to Isaac Benoit’s opening goal. Medicine Hat was given a chance to draw even when Tyson Meier was sent to the box for unsportsmanlike conduct midway through the second, but a cross checking penalty to Chandler Aleman quickly sent the teams to 4-on-4 and Mason Sande tacked on for the Copperheads.
While Aleman, Howg and Bexte kept the scoring going in the third, the misconducts continued as well. Cubs Desmond Crawford and Grant Forbes and Coaldale’s Tyler Strath were all shown the gate before the final buzzer, which ended the game with 110 combined penalty minutes.
“We’ve just got to leave it in the past,” said Gaetan. “There’s still lots of hockey left. We have 35 games left in the season so we have to rebound quick, have a good week of practices and get right back at it.”
Cubs goaltender Brett Vanderveer stopped 25 shots in the loss, dropping Medicine Hat to 2-2-0 on the season.
Merkl stopped 19 before leaving the net and was replaced by Brandon Clark, who logged nine saves down the stretch to push Coaldale to 3-2-0.
“He played huge,” Anderson said of Clark. “That’s a tough place to come into in the middle of the game, especially when the game’s heated like that.”
While the Cubs left the ice without any points Sunday, they picked up a pair Saturday in Strathmore with a 4-2 victory over the Wheatland Kings.
Mackenzie Fritzler, Chandler Aleman, Fletcher Aleman and Mason Fischer all scored for Medicine Hat, while Dawson Savage stopped 20 to collect the victory.
Lucas Muenchrath scored both goals for Strathmore. Landen Brassard turned away 37 in goal.
The Cubs are back on the ice Saturday in Cochrane against the Generals (3-3-0) before returning to the Kinplex Sunday to host the Rocky Rams (1-3-0) at 2:15 p.m.
