NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN — Medicine Hat Tigers forward Caleb Willms evades a check from Edmonton Oil Kings defenceman Ethan Cap during a Western Hockey League game on Saturday at the Canalta Centre in 2019.
The Edmonton Oil Kings will sleep soundly over Christmas after earning a bit of breathing room atop the Western Hockey League’s Central Division.
With a two-week break awaiting them at the final horn, the Oil Kings rode an early scoring surge to a 7-1 victory over the Medicine Hat Tigers on Saturday night at the Canalta Centre — leaving the Tabbies six points back of the division lead with two games in hand at the unofficial halfway point of the season.
Looking to extend their point streak to eight games, the Oil Kings took an early stranglehold on Medicine Hat by lighting the lamp with each of their first three shots.
First Dylan Guenther split the defence and deked his way past Garin Bjorklund just over two minutes into the game, then Matthew Robertson snapped another one past the 17-year-old netminder eight seconds later before captain Scott Atkinson added another breakaway goal to silence the crowd of 3,024 in Medicine Hat.
The Tigers mounted a push back when their league-best five-forward power play unit earned a chance near the halfway point of the opening period. While Edmonton killed off the interference infraction to Robertson, Medicine Hat broke through shortly after it expired when Dru Krebs jumped on a loose puck to finish off a goalmouth scramble.
Bjorklund settled into his crease and stopped the next nine shots he faced to carry the two-goal deficit into intermission. But the Oil Kings solved him again halfway through the middle frame when David Kope found Atkinson streaking to the net for his second of the night.
The Tigers kept digging for a way back and newly acquired forward Lukas Svejkovsky appeared to score on a power play midway through the third — but a video review determined his shot rang off the bar and out.
Just 16 seconds after the goal was overturned, former Tiger Josh Williams took the puck the other way and beat Bjorklund to drive a dagger into any hope for a comeback.
Carter Souch added another goal for good measure on a late power play with Dylan Plouffe in the bin for slashing — giving Williams his fourth point of the night.
Cossa turned away 28 shots to secure the victory and push Edmonton to a league-best 22-6-5-2 record.
Bjorklund took the loss on 24 saves, dropping Medicine Hat to 22-10-1-0.
The Tigers will be back on the ice Dec. 27 to face the Broncos in Swift Current.
