NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Cubs forward Jacob Milne admires his shot in the first period of the Cubs 8-1 win in game three of their playoff series against the Coaldale Copperheads Sunday night.
The Medicine Hat Cubs are close to punching their ticket to the next round.
After beating the Coaldale Copperheads 8-1 Sunday night at the Kinplex, the Cubs now have a 3-0 stranglehold on their second round playoff series.
Jacob Milne and Callen Prosofsky led the way offensively with two goals a piece and Dawsen Savage was almost perfect in net, turning aside 21 of the 22 shots he faced in the win.
Cubs head coach and general manager Randy Wong said Sunday’s win was big coming off their 4-2 victory in Coaldale on Saturday.
“Guys came out hard and had a good jump to the start of their game and we just carried it through and got the win,” Wong said.
Milne got the game started offensively getting his first of the contest 3:18 after puck drop. Levi Schlosser and Colby Friedrich picked up the assists on both of Milne’s goals as the trio called the “grey line” flexed their offensive muscle Sunday night.
The 20-year-old Milne said it felt good to get his first playoff goal but quickly created his line mates for the offence.
“I have to give credit where it’s due, the grey line is buzzing so Freddy and Levi set me up and easy tap ins for me,” Milne said.
Will Stroud followed Milne’s goal up less than a minute later with his first of the playoffs to put Medicine Hat ahead early. Hunter Hankel had the lone assist on the goal.
Almost seven minutes passed as both teams traded chances before the Cubs Gerret Harty took a high sticking penalty. The Cubs penalty killers took advantage of the open space on the ice as Cooper Hilworth scored shorthanded to pick up his second goal of the series and take the wind out of the Copperheads’ sails.
After assisting Hilworth’s shorthanded goal, Prosofsky scored his first of the game with 2:59 left in the first to give the Cubs a 4-0 lead after the opening 20 minutes. Austin Klimosko had a helper on Prosofsky’s first as Medicine Hat outshot the Copperheads 13-5 in the firs frame.
The second period started with back and forth play as both teams started to ramp up the physical play that comes in a heated playoff series. That bubbled over 11:39 into the period when Cubs forward Ethan Machan was handed a five minute major penalty and a game misconduct for head contact.
Just like their penalty kill in the first period, the Cubs utilized the open ice. Prosofsky scored shorthanded to pick up his second goal of the game. Hilworth and defenseman Jamal Shaw had the assists on the goal.
Wong said the Cubs penalty kill has been good all season and he chalked it up to the work ethic of the players.
“They’ve bragged about it too, they let the power play guys know,” Wong said. “It’s the work ethic of those guys that get you those points and they’re relentless. I think that’s what you’ll see with them and really happy that they can get rewarded once and a while with a shorty. Keeps them motivated to continue to work hard.”
Milne capped off the second period with his second goal of the game, as he scored with 16 seconds left in the frame to put the Cubs up 6-0 after 40 minutes.
The Copperheads did crack the wall of Savage 4:10 into the third but the Cubs quickly answered back to extinguish any comeback attempts.
Savage said it was disappointing seeing his shutout snapped but was more happy with the win.
“The win is what matters, obviously it sucks but the guys made it easy all game for me so I can’t complain,” Savage said.
Carson Christianson scored five minutes later on a power play with Everet Stewart and Hilworth picking up the assists. D-man Braden Van De Kraats scored his first of the post season with 8:27 left in the game to cap off the Cubs win at 8-1. Dylan Trembecki and Stroud had the assists on Van De Kraat’s marker.
The Cubs look to complete the series sweep Wednesday night when they hit the road for Coaldale. When asked how the Cubs keep their minds from looking too far ahead and losing focus on closing out the series, Wong said he doesn’t think it will be an issue with his team.
“I sense something with this group, the desire to win so I don’t think it will be an issue,” Wong said. “I think we see that we have them on the short end of it and I think we will come out with the energy that we have had in the first three games, that’s the expectation.”
“We’ll make sure that we practice some things on Tuesday, talk about it in a team meeting and make Sur ether understand that we need to finish this thing off on Wednesday.”
