NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Hunter St. Martin follows through on his breakaway, shorthanded goal in the first period of a 4-3 overtime loss Saturday night at Co-op Place to the Saskatoon Blades.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers came away with four points in what became a wild weekend.
A 2-1 shootout loss Friday to the Prince Albert Raiders and a 4-3 overtime loss Saturday to the Saskatoon Blades was capped off with a 9-7 win Monday afternoon on the road over the Edmonton Oil Kings, giving the Tigers four of a possible six points out of the weekend.
After Friday’s game where the Tigers couldn’t solve the Raiders for more than one goal, Saturday’s OT loss against the CHL’s top team came with a third-period comeback after leading for almost two periods.
Monday’s victory in Edmonton had the Tigers head 8-4 after a five-goal second period before the Oil Kings crept back in late to make it close. Medicine Hat allowed four power play goals on six penalty kills and surrendered two shorthanded goals while only scoring on one of their four power plays against the Oil Kings.
Gavin Mckenna had three goals and an assist in Sunday’s win for his seventh four-point game of the season. He remains atop the rookie scoring race by four points. Eight different Tigers collected multi-point games Sunday, with Oasiz Wiesblatt also notching four points with three assists and a goal.
Monday’s game at Rogers place was a near sellout with 12,370 fans in attendance. It was an atmosphere Frazer says they enjoyed and he hopes the players learn how to handle that kind of energy.
“It’s probably more fans than guys have ever played in front of so hopefully they took away from it the nerves or whatever might come along with that,” Frazer said. “We had a really great start, the first 30 minutes we played really well. So hopefully the guys take away that they played well with all those fans and that energy and prove they can do it.”
Looking back on the weekend as a whole, associate coach Joe Frazer says it’s hard to not like getting four points.
“This time of year it’s all about getting points,” Frazer said. “Friday against P.A., didn’t think it was our best effort, but we got a point. We played really good against Saskatoon and got a point there and then today we got two points. So when you get four of six points this time of year, that’s big for us.”
The weekend points keeps the Tigers in first place of the Central division with a 33-17-4-2 record. They remain six points up on the Red Deer Rebels and the Swift Current Broncos who have jumped up in division talk with a record of 7-1-2 in their last 10 games.
The Broncos are Medicine Hat’s next opponent as they have a home-and-home series with their Central division rivals, starting Friday night at Swift Current.
