NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Mat Ward jumps into the arms of defenceman Bryce Pickford while celebrating his hat trick goal against his former club in the third period of a 5-2 win Saturday night at Co-op Place over the Swift Current Broncos.
Mat Ward scored three times Saturday night to propel the Medicine Hat Tigers 5-2 over the Swift Current Broncos at Co-op Place.
That sentence would have put a WHL fan into a spiral a year ago.
But the 20-year-old former Bronco led the Tigers in a bounce-back win, adding an assist for a four-point night as Medicine Hat rebounded from a 4-1 loss Friday at Swift Current. Ward said Tigers’ head coach Willie Desjardins challenged his line with Hunter St. Martin and Ryder Ritchie to be better defensively, something they did in spades.
” It’s good to be able to bounce back,” Ward said. “If you look in a playoff series, you’re not going to go 16-0, you’re going to have some tougher nights. It’s the ability to punch back when you get punched in the face.”
Desjardins liked how Ward’s line played and how the team responded in the win.
“We played good last night in Swift Current too, these were two really good games for us,” head coach Willie Desjardins said.”The other night in Swift Current, we just gave up too many outnumbered rushes and they capitalized. They’re a very pretty opportunity-driven team, they’re pretty fast.
“Tonight, we just played a solid game throughout. We did a better job with our F3 staying above, we didn’t give up quite as many out numbered chances. Wardo had a big night as well, so it was great.”
The Tigers opened the scoring in historic fashion.
In the dying seconds of a power play, Mat Ward had the puck on the left side of the ice. He looked to make a cross-crease pass, bouncing the puck off a Swift Current defender into the net to open the scoring at 7:08.
Jack Kachkowski and Josh Van Mulligen had the assists.
Just six seconds later, Ward won the face-off at centre ice to Niilopekka Muhonen who carried the puck into the Swift Current end. He passed the puck off to Ward who sniped home his second of the period.
His second goal, also his 10th of the season, was scored six seconds following the first tally and is tied for the second-fastest goal scored by the same player in WHL history. Ward liked the idea of his name in the WHL record books.
“It’s cool to hear but I don’t really look at it like that, just trying to help the team win,” Ward said.
Medicine Hat led 2-0 after 20 minutes of play, leading the game in shots 11-5.
The Broncos found the lone tally of the middle frame, capitalizing on the rush.
Off a face-off in the Swift Current end, Eric Johnston sent the puck to s streaking Brady Birnie who flew up the left wing and scored glove-side on Switzer at 4:55. Luke Mistelbacher had the second assist on Birnie’s 18th of the season.
Medicine Hat killed off a late penalty kill in the frame, holding onto the 2-1 lead after 40 minutes. They out-shot the Broncos 10-6 in the frame.
Swift Current tied the game up early in third period. Just over a minute into a power play, Mistelbacher scored with a wrist shot past Switzer to make it a 2-2 game at 1:50. The goal was Mistelbacher’s fifth of the weekend, scoring four times in Friday’s Bronco win. Clarke Caswell and Connor Gabriel had the assists on his 28th.
That was the last blemish of the night for Switzer, making 23 saves for his 14th win of the season.
“That’s a huge bounce back, especially after last night didn’t go how we wanted,” Switzer said. “I thought we played good in Swift too, just bounces didn’t go our way. But it’s really good that we got the two points.”
The Tigers eventually secured the win in the third, scoring a trio of goals in the last 14 minutes of the game.
Ward relieved the 3,910 fans in attendance of their hats with his third of the night, scoring six minutes into the final frame. The 20-year-old carried the puck up ice on a breakaway, maintaining possession after a stick check at the blue line. He broke it and scored backhanded on his former teammate.
The Tigers made it a 4-2 lead 5:26 later.
On a three-on-two rush, Ryder Ritchie scored his 10th of the season for the two-goal advantage. Ward picked up a helper, Jonas Woo had the second assist.
After killing off a penalty in the last 10 minutes of the frame, the Tigers iced the win with an empty net goal from Oasiz Wiesblatt, his 17th marker of the season.
They outshot Swift Current 34-25, winning the face-off battle 40-31. Swift Current was 1-3 on the power play, Tigers 1-1. Across the ice from Switzer, Reid Dyck made 30 stops.
The Tigers (22-15-2) remain tied with the Saskatoon Blades for first place Eastern conference with the win and are off until Wednesday when they host the Prince Albert Raiders for the first time this season.
Tigers scratches: The Tigers had eight scratched players for the third-straight game. Forward Gavin Mckenna (Canada) and defenceman Veeti Väisänen (Finland) at the World Juniors, Cayden Lindstrom with the Columbus Blue Jackets and five injured players. Forward’s Andrew Basha and Carter Cunningham are listed as day to day, all three of Hayden Harsanyi (lower-body injury), Harrison Meneghin (lower-body injury), Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll (lower-body injury) are week to week.
