NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN Medicine Hat Tigers defenceman Parker Gavlas exchanges a few words with the Edmonton Oil Kings bench after a fight with Ethan Cap in a Western Hockey League game at the Canalta Centre on Saturday, March 7, 2020.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
The Medicine Hat Tigers extended their winning streak to five games while gaining some breathing room on second place in the Central Division following a 4-1 victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings Saturday night at the Canalta Centre.
Parker Gavlas finished a helper shy of the Gordie Howe hat trick, while fellow former Oil King Brett Kemp potted his 30th goal of the season and added the 100th assist of his career while sporting flashy orange sweaters for the WHL Suits Up to Promote Organ Donation night.
“It’s something you honestly dream of sometimes. To be able to do that and get the two points is huge,” Kemp said of scoring against his old team. “We’re treating these as playoff games, and it shows how desperate and committed we are to our game plan. It’s definitely paying off.”
The victory – Medicine Hat’s 40th of the season with six games to go – pushes the Tigers (40-19-2-1) two points ahead of the Lethbridge Hurricanes (37-19-2-5) for second in the Central while preventing Edmonton (42-12-6-4) from clinching both the division and Eastern Conference.
“They’ve kind of had our number all year. It was good to finally beat them,” said Gavlas. “We’re feeling good. We’re confident. We’re coming to the rink and we’re happy to be here. That’s the biggest thing, is that we’re growing as a team and as a group and it’s showing on the ice.”
The Oil Kings took over Saturday’s early lead just 40 seconds into the game when former Tabby Josh Williams ripped a wrist shot past Hat netminder Mads Søgaardd. Like Kemp, Williams agreed there’s always some extra motivation when lacing them up against your old squad.
“I think it’s just a pride thing. When you’re playing against your old team you want to play well,” said Williams. “Medicine Hat can still catch us so I think we’ve got to play a little better hockey down the stretch here and get ready for playoffs.”
Medicine Hat came up empty-handed after firing 11 shots at Edmonton’s Sebastian Cossa in the opening period, while Søgaard settled into his crease to finish the frame with 12 saves.
Gloves hit the ice late in the first when Gavlas was called for a charge on Oil Kings rookie Dylan Guenther. Ethan Cap took exception to the hit and lured Gavlas into an evenly matched heavyweight bout that brought the crowd of 3,230 to its feet.
“I didn’t think it was a dirty hit, but obviously the penalty was there,” said Gavlas. “I got challenged by one of my old buddies so I just had to do what I had to do. It wasn’t anything too crazy, it’s just part of the game.”
The Tigers rode the energy gained from Gavlas’ fight into the second and Kemp broke through on a power play to knot things up three minutes into the period.
Ryan Chyzowski stole away the lead for Medicine Hat five minutes later, parking himself in front and finishing off a behind-the-net pass from Lukas Svejkovsky for his 32nd goal of the campaign, and second point of the night.
Gavlas joined the scoring party late in the second with a shot over Cossa’s blocker, giving the Tigers some cushion after outshooting Edmonton 23-10 in the middle frame.
Medicine Hat continued to bombard Cossa early in the third and Corson Hopwo beat him on a rebound to make it 4-1 five minutes in. Kemp picked up his 100th career assist on the goal, just one day after Chyzowski accomplished the feat in a 6-1 win over the Calgary Hitmen.
“It’s something we’ll cherish forever,” said Kemp. “We’re two pretty good buddies and being able to reach that milestone together is definitely nice.”
Edmonton mounted a pushback effort and ended up outshooting Medicine Hat 14-9 in the final frame, but the Tigers refused to give them any ground.
“They’ve beat us in a couple of close games this year and I think for the most part it’s kind of been the puck management,” said Tigers assistant coach Joe Frazer. “We’re a pretty run-and-gun, highly-offensive team, but I think the last two third periods when we had to lock it down, it was great to see the puck management and just how we were able to shut them down.”
After facing less than 30 shots in eight of his past nine starts – and 20-or-fewer in four of those games – Søgaard found himself tasked with considerably more work Saturday, but the 6-foot-7 Dane held strong to lock up a 36-save victory.
“It felt good. I felt comfortable in net,” said Søgaard. “This year, not facing a lot of shots in games in general, you’ve got to find ways to stay mentally dialed in. I think I’ve done a better job of that lately.”
Cossa stopped 39 shots for Edmonton in the loss.
The Tigers close out a five-game homestand Tuesday against the Red Deer Rebels at 7 p.m.
