Cubs sweep weekend, return home for two-game stretch

By JAMES TUBB on December 6, 2023.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

The Medicine Hat Cubs picked up a lesson and some much needed points over the weekend.

The Cubs won both of their road games, winning 6-4 Friday at High River against the Flyers and topping the Rocky Rams 8-3 on Sunday.

Head coach and general manager Randy Wong says they were lucky to hold onto their lead against High River after allowing four straight goals in the third before a late empty netter. The Cubs allowed two quick goals in the third period Sunday before rattling off five unanswered to secure the win.

Wong says they don’t want to allow goals in bunches like that, but going through moments like that allows them to further understand what they need to get better at.

“Anytime you get on the road and you get wins, that’s always a good thing, so you try to take some positives out of it, and I felt that offensively we were real good,” Wong said. “Where we were really, really good was our power play this weekend. We scored two or more goals in each game, we changed the look of that a bit and it was really effective. So the power play is starting to click and be more consistent, which was a big thing we’ve been working on.”

Kyle Woolridge scored twice against High River, and both Caleb Garrecht and Hayden King added a goal and two assists each. Carson Christianson, Josh Drefs, Brady Mahar and Callen Prosofsky each scored a solo marker in the win, with Tyler Wakelam and Dimitrius Virostek splitting duties in net.

Evan Fisher and Wooldridge led the charge Sunday with two goals each. Makhi Carriere and Christianson each had a goal and an assist, Darnell Glasgo and Garrecht each added a goal. Wakelam made 20 saves.

The Cubs come out of the weekend still holding onto second in the South division with a 15-3-3 record and 33 points. They’re tied with the Coaldale Copperheads, who have a record of 16-4-1. Medicine Hat remains ahead of them in the standings because they lead the season series 1-0.

With the season past the halfway mark and approaching the Christmas break, Wong says they’ve talked about learning from their mistakes while navigating a tough South division.

“When you’re playing teams you need to beat, you have to make sure you get those points because the other top teams are,” Wong said. “It’s kind of a combination of both, you’ve got to be on your game and you can’t let teams in to give them a chance.

“We’re basically done with the North completely after this weekend, we have Airdrie on Sunday and then it’s a full dose of South division teams. You’re one weekend away from being in fourth or fifth place, or maintaining and fighting for first place. That can change real quick with any of the teams vying for those top four or five spots.”

The Cubs host the Cochrane Generals, who are in fourth place in the South division, on Saturday and will face off against the Airdrie Thunder on Sunday, both games at the Kinplex. Wong is expecting some fireworks from Saturday’s game.

“They’ve had some close ones and they’ve lost a couple in the last couple of weeks there, so you’d like to knock them down a peg,” Wong said. “We owe them a game at home where we maybe weren’t at our best last time. Our guys will be ready to go and play this one (hard), it’s a good rival.”

Saturday’s game gets underway at 6 p.m. and puck drop Sunday is at 3 p.m.

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