NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Cubs forward Cooper Hilworth celebrates his first of four goals with Josh Drefs in the first period of the 9-0 Game 6 win in Cochrane against the Generals to take their semifinals series 4-2.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Cubs wrapped up their semifinals series against the Cochrane Generals with a statement.
After beating the Generals 6-4 Friday night to take a 3-2 series lead, the Cubs travelled to Cochrane on Saturday and shut them out 9-0 to win the series 4-2. Cooper Hilworth led the way offensively with four goals and five points in the win.
“It’s absolutely insane,” Hilworth said about Game 6. “It’s such a close series, overtime twice and then an absolute blowout in Game 6 in their own barn is crazy.”
With the series win the Cubs will take on the first place Okotoks Bisons in the South division finals, with that best-of-seven series getting underway Wednesday in Okotoks.
Saturday’s series clincher could have easily gone the other way for the Cubs as their bus broke down just outside of Medicine Hat and delayed their departure by two hours, pushing the game back.
Head coach Randy Wong says it could have been used as an excuse if they had a bad Game 6 but didn’t even bring it up with the team once the bus was back on the road.
“We weren’t gonna talk about it, it wasn’t an issue, our guys were ready to go,” Wong said. “Early on in the game we just had to get our legs right, we were kind of stuck in our end for the first seven minutes. Once we got through that wave then we started to take over and we got a lucky bounce on that first goal and that relaxed our guys.”
Goaltender Kellen Bojic turned aside all 24 shots he faced for series clinching shutout. Unlike his head coach, he wasn’t sure what to expect with the delay but was happy with everyone’s effort.
“I’m really impressed with the way they showed up tonight and I couldn’t be more proud of every single person on our team,” Bojic said.
His method for battling the ‘bus legs’ was to get dressed as quick as he could to get his legs moving as much as possible. He wasn’t the only concerned player as Hilworth wasn’t sure how they would perform.
“I was actually very worried, we showed up 30 minutes before warm ups and it was just a little nerve wracking,” Hilworth said. “The warm ups were slow, had to kick our bus legs out for about the first 10 minutes and then the train started and pucks were finding the back of the net for everyone.”
He rated his goaltenders performance as “nails,” described as an amazing performance.
The rest of the Cubs offence came from throughout the rest of the lineup with Jacob Milne adding a goal and two assists and Connor Douglas notching a goal and an assist.
Caleb Garrecht had two markers, Callan Prosofsky had a goal and Josh Drefs piled up three assists.
The Cubs head into the South division finals against Okotoks looking to avenge last season’s defeat in Game 6 against the Bisons, who went on to win the league beating the Generals in the finals. With Game 1 set for Wednesday, Game 2 is Friday also in Okotoks and the first home game is Sunday, a 2:45 p.m. start at the Kinplex.
Game 4 is Tuesday also at home, an 8:15 p.m. start. The Cubs know the history of the series, they are ready to embrace the rivalry and make amends for last year’s downfall.
“It’s going to be exciting,” Bojic said. “We just have to go in with the same game plan now and just work our asses off.”
See Wednesday’s Medicine Hat News for a preview of the series.
