Medicine Hat Tigers forward Brett Kemp celebrates his goal after opening the scoring against the Lethbridge Hurricanes as Canes goaltender Carl Tetachuk looks on Thursday night at the Enmax Centre in Lethbridge. -- SOUTHERN ALBERTA NEWSPAPERS PHOTO DALE WOODARD
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
The Central Division may be out of reach, but a season series sweep of the Lethbridge Hurricanes is still well within the grasp of the Medicine Hat Tigers.
Cole Clayton and Nick McCarry scored back-to-back shorthanded tallies in the second period, while Brett Kemp and Lukas Svejovsky each added a pair of even strength markers to lead Medicine Hat to a commanding 6-2 victory over their Highway 3 rivals on Thursday night at the Enmax Centre. The win moves the Tigers to 13-6-0-1 on the season and 4-0-0-0 in their six-game season series against the Hurricanes.
The final two games in the set will come Saturday in Medicine Hat and Sunday in Lethbridge, both with a 7 p.m. puck drop.
The Edmonton Oil Kings clinched the Central Division banner for a third straight season with last Sunday’s 3-2 win over Medicine Hat.
Kemp opened Thursday’s scoring, then Jett Jones responded for Lethbridge to even things up after 20 minutes.
Clayton and McCarry struck in succession to open the second, then Kemp added another and Svejkovsky tacked on some insurance in the dying minutes of the frame.
Svejkovsky potted his second of the night shortly after a power play expired in the third period.
Ty Nash added a late power play tally for Lethbridge.
Hat goaltender Garin Bjorklund stopped 29 shots in the victory.
Lethrbidge’s Carl Tetachuk turned away 20 in the loss, dropping Lethbridge to 8-11-2-0 on the season.
