NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN - Medicine Hat Tigers forward Elijah Brown celebrates with teammate Ryan Chyzowski after scoring a goal on Calgary Hitmen goaltender Jack McNaughton during a Western Hockey League game at Canalta Centre Friday.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
James Hamblin notched two big milestones in a 5-2 victory over the Calgary Hitmen on Friday night at the Canalta Centre.
The Medicine Hat Tigers captain netted his 20th goal of the season in the first period, then struck again for the 100th tally of his Western Hockey League career early in the second to lead his Tabbies to their second win over the Hitmen in three straight matchups.
“All I can say is thanks to my teammates and my family and friends, obviously the city of Medicine Hat,” said Hamblin. “I’ve had so much love and support that I couldn’t thank everyone enough.”
Looking to get back into the win column after falling 4-2 to Calgary Wednesday, the Tigers took control of the early action and peppered Calgary’s Jack McNaughton with 21 shots through the opening frame to take a 2-0 lead into the break.
“The first period was really, really good,” said Tigers assistant coach Ryan Smith. “The power plays helped to establish a little zone time, but I thought our tracking was good. We were fast through the neutral zone, kept it simple.”
Elijah Brown opened the scoring by sweeping in Ryan Chyzowski’s rebound on an early power play, then Hamblin jumped out from behind the net and tucked his 20th behind McNaughton just over three minutes later.
“I took a different approach today. I put some headphones in before the game and really tried to focus,” said Brown. “I didn’t play my best the last little bit here, but the amount of love I was getting from the guys was unbelievable. It really boosted my spirit.”
Calgary mounted a pushback effort in the dying minutes of the first, but they were unable to solve Søgaard on five shots in the frame.
Hamblin went right back to it early in the second, finishing off a give-and-go with Corson Howpo down low to stretch Medicine Hat’s lead to three while reaching triple digits in career goals. The crowd of 2,914 gave the Hat captain a rousing ovation when the achievement was announced.
“I gave him a big hug,” said Brown. “He’s the heart and soul of this team and to see him get rewarded like that is awesome. We just follow after him. He’s a hell of a player but an even better guy.”
Brown then struck for his second five minutes later when he sprung himself on a breakaway and picked the top corner to make it 4-0.
The Hitmen finally mustered a response halfway through the middle frame when Carson Focht beat Søgaard on a power play with Hat rookie Dru Krebs in the box for cross checking.
Jonathan Brinkman re-established Medicine Hat’s four-goal edge less than two minutes into the third when he crashed the net and finished off a set-up feed from Bryan Lockner.
Calgary responded again just over two minutes later when Blake Allan beat Søgaard with a shot from outside the left circle – but the Hat netminder settled right back into his crease to lock up a 20-save victory.
“We didn’t come out the way we wanted tonight and I think that was kind of a theme all game,” said Focht. “When we’re putting pucks behind their D and making them turn, being aggressive, I think that’s when we’re at our best and I think we didn’t have enough of that today.”
Medicine Hat improved to 24-11-1-1 with the win. They sit nine points behind the Edmonton Oil Kings for first in the Central Division with three games in hand, and two points back of the Lethbridge Hurricanes for second with two games in hand.
McNaughton stopped 32 in the loss, dropping Calgary to 18-12-4-1.
The Tigers return to the Canalta Centre Saturday to host the Seattle Thunderbirds (14-19-2-1) at 7:30 p.m.
