NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Tyler MacKenzie fist bumps Brendan Lee who scored two goals in the first period of a 5-2 win over the Edmonton Oil Kings on Friday at Co-op Place.
A four goal first period propelled the Medicine Hat Tigers over the Edmonton Oil Kings Friday night.
The Tigers early offence put them ahead early as they came away with the 5-2 win at Co-op Place, their third victory out of their last four games. Medicine Hat entered the contest off a 6-4 win over the CHL’s top ranked Winnipeg Ice on Wednesday.
“We had a good start,” head coach Willie Desjardins said. “We got some in the first period, we didn’t get anything early but we stayed with it and then we got a few late in the first period and that was a difference in the game.”
It took 9:40 into the first period before Brendan Lee cracked open the offence in the game to bring the 2,425 Tigers faithful to their feet. The 21-year-old finished off a pass from Tyler MacKenzie for his first goal of the game. Just 3:24 later, MacKenzie added his own goal as he carried the puck into the Edmonton end while short-handed and got the Oil Kings goaltender going one way and put the puck on the other end of the net. Dru Krebs had the assist on MacKenzie’s 17th goal on the year and the Tigers 10th shorthanded marker.
The Tigers kept the offence flowing with two goals in the last two minutes of the first period. Tomas Mrsic knocked in a net front pass from Hunter St. Martin for his eighth of the season. Then with 52 left in the period Lee scored his second of the contest and 27th of the season with MacKenzie and Smith registering assists.
The 18-year-old MacKenzie says it was important for them to string two wins together after losing to Swift Current two nights after beating the Kamloops Blazers.
“On Tuesday against Swift I thought we came out flat and we talked about what we needed to do for the rest of the week and having three home games obviously nice to be on the road,” MacKenzie said. But we talked about how every two points is important and getting the two against Winnipeg is huge, then another two tonight, that’s big. And we build off that going into this road trip.”
The Tigers were the only ones on the board in what was a back and forth second period. Cayden Lindstrom wound up and fired home a wrist shot 13:39 into the period for the 17th on the season, Smith had the lone assist.
The third period offence was all Edmonton as they finally found a solution to Beckett Langkow who turned aside all 19 shots he faced through 40 minutes. Rhys Pederson scored on an Oil Kings power play 6:02 into the period for his first WHL goal. With 2:37 left in the game, Langkow misplayed a puck near his crease that bounced off mason Finely into the net.
But that was all the offence in the contest as the Tigers held on for the 5-2 win and the much needed two points. Langkow finished his night with 25 saves for his 22nd win on the year. With the win, Medicine Hat’s record sits at 26-24-8-1, keeping them in seventh place in the Eastern Conference. Their next contest is Tuesday in Winnipeg before heading to Brandon to take on the Wheat Kings on Wednesday.
Langkow says they need to regroup and get ready for the tough road trip.
“We’ll take (Saturday) off, practice Sunday and then we go off to Winnipeg there and it’s a big game for us, a big trip,” Langkow said. “So we just have to be ready for that.”
