NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN - Cubs forward Cooper Hilworth celebrates a goal Friday at the Kinplex during a Heritage Junior Hockey League playoff game against Cochrane.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
The Medicine Hat Cubs left the Kinplex on Friday night with a 3-1 series stranglehold after taking the Cochrane Generals to task in a 5-3 victory.
Austin Klimosko and Cooper Hilworth scored less than a minute apart to break a 2-2 game open in the third period – handing the Generals their third consecutive loss while leaving the Cubs one win away from the Heritage Junior Hockey League’s Southern Division final.
“Going up 3-1 gives the guys a little extra energy going into Cochrane on Sunday,” said Cubs co-coach JD Gaetan. “I think we got off to a slow start in this game. Luckily Cochrane wasn’t themselves either to start the game. In the last five minutes of the second I think we kind of started to fall back into our system play. We played our game and it kind of rolled from there.”
Cochrane got on the board when Justin Giacomin scored a minute into the opening frame, but Medicine Hat pushed back with a power play goal from Desmond Crawford.
Cochrane’s Dean Olenyk knotted things back up seven minutes into the second, but Brayden Anderson prevented the Generals from taking their lead into the third by jamming in a rebound with just over a minute left in the second.
“We’ve just got to play. We’ve got to dig deep and see what we can get to bring,” said Generals head coach Kurtis Jones. “They’re a good hockey team.”
Klimosko kept the momentum rolling into the third – giving the Cubs their first lead of the night more than 42 minutes into the game – then Hilworth repeated the feat in rapid fashion to leave Cochrane stunned.
“I think we knew what we had to do to win there and everyone bought into it and kept going,” said Cubs forward Levi Schlosser, who had two assists in the win. “It’s not over until it’s over so we’ve got to keep going.”
The Generals attempted to muscle their way back into the conversation, but Chandler Aleman scored on a power play halfway through the third to push the game out of reach.
Tempers boiled over later in the period when Cochrane’s Nick Koch was caught interfering with Savage behind the Cubs goal. The play prompted a handful of skirmishes and resulted in misconducts to Koch and Cubs defenceman Martin Watz.
“I don’t think that’s very classy of them,” said Schlosser. “We’ll stick up for him and keep going. Make them pay on the scoreboard, that’s all we can do.”
Olenyk added his second of the night on a deflection from the slot with just over six minutes left. While it was the last puck they’d get behind Savage, Cochrane’s Patrick Forde took another run at the Cubs goaltender late in the final minute of regulation, earning a five-minute major and a misconduct while prompting another few tussles.
“They’re saying we hit their goalie. I didn’t see it, but to go four times at our goalie is pretty ridiculous,” said Gaetan, adding Savage avoided injury. “They’re a desperate hockey team and we know that. We’ve just got to protect ourselves and stick to our game.”
Savage finished with 31 saves to collect the victory.
Cochrane’s Erik Garber stopped 31 shots.
The Cubs and Generals go back at it for Game 5 on Sunday in Cochrane at 5:30 p.m. If needed, Game 6 is back in Medicine Hat Monday.
