NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Brett Kemp celebrates with teammate Cole Clayton after scoring a goal in a Western Hockey League game against the Seattle Thunderbirds on Saturday, Jan. 4 , 2020 at the Canalta Centre.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
Brett Kemp went down in a heap on Saturday night at the Canalta Centre, but the Seattle Thunderbirds couldn’t keep him out for long.
After hitting his head into the boards halfway through the second period, Kemp left the ice in visible anguish, but quickly returned to score the go-ahead goal and lead the Medicine Hat Tigers to an 8-5 victory with a four-point performance.
“My face kind of hit against the boards and I went down after that. I was just kind of tingling all over, but I was lucky enough to come back,” said Kemp, who had a goal and an assist before the incident, then added another one of each after returning to the ice. “I kind of wanted to get back at them. I’m a guy that likes to score goals and set up plays so I didn’t want to get physically after them, I wanted to get on the scoreboard and it was a tie game.”
The Tigers got off to a hot start when Kemp wrapped around the Seattle goal and beat Thunderbirds goaltender Blake Lyda to the far post just over a minute into the game.
“I think we’ve just kind of made it a goal of ours to come out flying at the beginning of the period,” said Tigers captain James Hamblin. “We’ve been doing a great job of that and hopefully we can keep doing it.”
Nick McCarry padded the lead later in the frame when he picked up an offensive zone turnover and completed a give-and-go play with Kemp – but the Thunderbirds quickly answered in numbers.
Seattle’s Andrej Kukuca cut into the lead by beating Hat netminder Garin Bjorklund on a breakaway less than a minute later, then the Slovakian forward added another just 23 seconds off the ensuing face-off to draw even.
Hamblin scored seven seconds later to keep the scoring surge alive – capping off a run of four goals in just 82 seconds – but Seattle again answered in kind when Connor Roulette banked a shot off Daniel Baker from behind the net to take a 3-3 tie into the second.
Former Tigers forward Henrik Rybinski – who requested a trade last season and was shipped to Seattle in exchange for prospect Aidan Brook and a pair of draft picks – picked up an assist on the goal in his first trip back to the Canalta Centre.
“It was good to be back actually, I miss Medicine Hat. It was a good experience,” said Rybinski, a Florida Panthers draft pick who has 10 goals and 17 assists with the Thunderbirds this season, including 12 points in his past five games. “It was fun to play in the Canalta Centre again and see the old team.”
Rybinski went on to steal away the lead just over two minutes into the middle frame, finishing off a pass from Keltie Jeri-Leon at the end of an odd-man rush.
The game took a scary turn a few minutes later when Kemp fell in the corner and had his head driven into the shelf of the boards on a check by Luke Bateman. Kemp left the ice and no penalty was called on the play.
“You never want to see a guy like that go down,” said Hamblin. “I know there was probably a bit of worry out of us, just for the future, but he did a great job of coming back and he had a big game today.”
The Tigers responded by tying the game when Lukas Svejkovsky redirected a point shot from Dylan Plouffe shortly before Kemp got back to the bench – then Kemp took it upon himself to restore the lead five minutes later.
Medicine Hat entered the third period shorthanded, but Hamblin shrugged off the disadvantage and beat Lyon on a short break just 12 seconds into the frame to give the Tigers some breathing room.
“That definitely relaxes us,” said Kemp. “Going up (by two), we definitely took a deep breath and said ‘OK, we’re fine here, we’ve just got to keep playing our game,’ and we definitely did that.”
The Tabbies continued to pile on the pressure and Plouffe broke through just past the halfway point of the third. Kemp then set up Cole Sillinger with six minutes left to push the game out of reach with his fourth point of the night.
“He was great all night,” Tigers assistant coach Joe Frazer said of Kemp. “You never want to see him get injured like he did, but for him to battle and come back and play the way he did says a lot about his toughness.”
Kukuca completed his hat trick two minutes later, but it was too late for Seattle to mount a comeback.
Bjorklund held on to secure a 25-save victory, which pushes Medicine Hat to 25-11-1-1 on the season. Bjorklund also picked up an assist on Kemp’s opening goal.
Lyda stopped 40 shots in the loss, dropping Seattle to 14-20-2-1.
The Tigers hit the road for a two-game East Division swing starting Tuesday in Brandon against the Wheat Kings and finishing Wednesday in Winnipeg against the Ice.
“Both teams are playing really well,” said Frazer. “You watch Winnipeg and they’ve won eight or nine in a row, they’re playing really well, then Brandon beat us here 4-0 at home. It’s going to be a tough trip, it’s always tough going out there, so we’ve got to make sure we’re ready.”
