PHOTO COURTESY PERRY BERGSON THE BRANDON SUN
Medicine Hat Tigers defenceman Rhett Parsons prepares to try a wrap-around as Brandon Wheat Kings goalie Ethan Eskit comes across the net to make the save during the first period in WHL action at Westoba Place on Sunday.
The Medicine Hat Tigers ended a busy weekend on a high note.
The Tigers wrapped up a three-game weekend in winning fashion, beating the Brandon Wheat Kings 7-3 on the road Sunday. Medicine Hat came into the contest off a 5-4 overtime loss Sunday to the Regina Pats. They also fell 3-1 Friday to the Red Deer Rebels, just the fifth time this season they’ve lost two straight games.
Medicine Hat scored first in a game that featured four different lead changes.
Just 32 seconds into the contest, Dru Krebs fired a puck on net that tricked in for his fourth of the season. The rest of the opening frame was back and forth before Brandon tied it up with 2:22 left. Rylen Roersma fired a hard shot from the wings that beat Ethan McCallum to make it 1-1 after 20 minutes.
A busy second period started off with a Hunter St. Martin power play goal 3:29 into the frame. The Tigers capitalized four second into a power play on a tic-tac-toe play from Shane Smith and Gavin McKenna.
The Wheat Kings answered back just over three minutes later with a goal from Brett Hyland. Medicine Hat followed that up 1:35 later with Oasiz Wiesblatt knocking in a loose puck in front of Ethan Eskit to re-gain the Medicine Hat lead.
Brandon answered back yet again. Joby Baumuller scored 1:18 after Wiesblatt’s goal to even it up at 3-3 through 40 minutes. After being tied up at 9-9 through 20 minutes, Medicine Hat outshot the Wheat Kings 27-17 through two periods.
The Tigers rattled off four unanswered goals in the third for the win.
Hayden Harsanyi was crashing the net when a shot from Tomas Mrsic rebounded off Eskit and hit Harsanyi on the chest and into the back of the net for the lead 4:05 into the third.
Just 1:07 later, Mrsic broke into the Brandon end and deked his way through multiple defenders before scoring from his knees for the 5-3 lead. McKenna and Smith had the helpers on Mrsic’s 12th of the season.
The offence kept rolling with Harsanyi firing a puck on net that slowly tricked through Eskit and into the net. Krebs and Parsons had the assists on Harsanyi’s ninth on the year, they led 6-3 with 4:37 left in the contest. Before the final buzzer could go, Wiesblatt and McKenna broke in on a breakaway.
McKenna sent the puck to Wiesblatt who scored his second of the night and 19th of the season to make it the 7-3 final with 2:40 left. St. Martin had the second assist.
McCallum, a product of Brandon, made 25 saves for the win on the afternoon. Across the ice from him, Eskit made 31 saves. The Tigers were 1-for-6 on the power play and stopped both of the Wheat Kings man advantages.
The Tigers (24-14-3) are off until Friday when they head to Moose Jaw to face Matthew Savoie and the Warriors. They’ll host the Warriors the next night at Co-op Place.
