NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Cayden Lindstrom embraces his teammates after scoring the first period tying goal in a 4-2 win Saturday night at Co-op Place against the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
The Medicine Hat Tigers weathered an early storm for a comeback win Saturday night.
After allowing two straight Lethbridge power play goals, the Tigers held on to beat the Hurricanes 4-2 at Co-op Place. Head coach Willie said it was a tough game but was happy to come away with the win.
“We took some penalties early that hurt u, I thought that was a pretty even game,” Desjardins said. “Lethbridge played hard tonight and it was a pretty pretty even battle all the way through. They had some chances in the third I didn’t want them to have but I thought we played better in the third as well.”
Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio says they had a good push in the third period but saw Medicine Hat wanting the game more.
“Medicine Hat can be hard and they were desperate than we were,” Kisio said. “They played with more pace and worked a little harder than we did tonight.”
Lethbridge came into the game off a 3-2 loss Friday night at home against the Regina Pats. The Hurricanes opened the scoring Saturday with two straight power play goals in the first frame.
Logan McCutcheon found the back of the net at 10:51, a few seconds after the Tigers killed off a 5-on-3 penalty for his second of the year. A little over three minutes later, Tyson Laventure scored his 17th of the year to put the Hurricanes ahead 2-0.
The Tigers didn’t take long to get back into the contest as Oasiz Wiesblatt took a pass from Andrew Basha at the blue line, skated into the Hurricanes end and scored short side on Harrison Meneghin. Wiesblatt’s 18th came 57 seconds after the Hurricanes second goal.
Medicine Hat tied the game up with 2:09 left in the first frame when Cayden Lindstrom knocked in a rebound in front of Meneghin for his 14th goal of the year. Reid Andersen and Hunter St. Martin had the assists on the equalizer that brought the crowd of 2,276 to their feet.
Lindstrom joked he enjoys his tap in goals as much as his hard wrist shots and was impressed with how the Tigers handled the early deficit.
“We don’t ever get down on ourselves when we’re down a couple goals,” Lindstrom said. “We always just push back and just just keep on going, that’s just how we are.”
After trailing in the first period the Tigers jumped ahead in the second. On an early power play, Tomas Mrsic fired a shot on net that was redirected from Wiesblatt for his second of the game. Dru Krebs had the second assist as Medicine Hat jumped ahead 3-2.
Wiesblatt, who is riding a five game point streak, says his individual success comes from putting in the work at the rink everyday. He was also encouraged by how the Tigers came back and held onto their lead against the Highway 3 rival.
“It just shows how relentless we are, they can score goals on us and we can just come back, it doesn’t really affect us,” Wiesblatt said. “We’ve improved on that in the last 10 games or so.”
Despite multiple high dangers chances from top prospect Gavin McKenna, the Tigers were held to the lone goal in the frame.
The two teams traded chances up and down the ice in the third period as the game went 10:24 without a whistle. Lethbridge poured on the chances and Medicine Hat weathered the Hurricanes as with the goalie pulled Brayden Boehm picked up the puck on the Tigers blue line and when met with a defender passed it over to Tyler MacKenzie who scored his 13th of the year on the empty net.
Evan May turned aside 35 shots for his third win of the season and first between the pipes in Co-op Place. Across the ice from him, Meneghin made 28 stops. Saturday was his first start since Jan. 13, a win against the Brandon Wheat Kings. He said strong practices helped him stay ready and says he felt good in the second and third periods.
“Those last two periods I was able to dial it down, get in a really good mental headspace and I felt good,” May said.
The Tigers (20-21-7-1) are back in action Sunday when they host Connor Bedard and the Regina Pats for a 4 p.m. contest. Medicine Hat beat the Pats 6-4 on Jan. 29, scoring four unanswered in the third for the comeback. Desjardins says they will have to be ready for puck drop and wants his players to enjoy what is expected to be a sellout crowd.
“It’s exciting. It really does speak great with Bedard and the Regina Pats organization, that’s pretty exceptional and it’s really great to see for our league,” Desjardins said. “For us it’s a chance for us to play in front of our fans like we’ve always wanted this. It’s going to be a great night to playand they’re going to be ready, so it should be a really good game.”
