Tigers survive nerve-wracking Game 5 to win first-round series with Broncos

By James Tubb on April 4, 2025.

NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Harrison Meneghin makes one of his 25 saves in a 3-2 Game 5 win Friday at Co-op Place over the Swift Current Broncos. With the win, the Tigers take the first-round series 4-1.

The Medicine Hat Tigers are off to the second round of the WHL Playoffs.

The Tigers held on Friday night to beat the Swift Current Broncos 3-2, winning the first round series 4-1 and advancing to the second round for the first time since 2017. Head coach Willie Desjardins tipped his hat to the Broncos for the close series.

“Swift Current played really well, there was a lot of character over in that room,” Desjardins said. “In the second period, halfway through, they started coming and they created. We had a pretty good push in the third but they have a good team, a lot of real character guys over there.

The Tigers lone loss of the series came in Game 3 on Tuesday, a 5-4 loss in Swift Current. They took Game 1 4-0 on March 28, won Game 2 the next night 6-3 and set up the series-winning game Friday with a 3-2 overtime win Wednesday on the road.

“This is pretty unbelievable,” Captain Oasiz Wiesblatt said reflecting on his first career WHL playoff series win. “I’m really proud of the group and how resilient we stayed and how we stayed hungry. But a lot of credit to Swift Current, they played a heck of five games and they did a great job. They were a hard team to play and they did a good job this series. I’m really proud of the group.”

For the fourth time in the series, it was Medicine Hat who kicked off the scoring.

Just over the halfway mark of the first period, the Tigers’ young line carried the puck up ice. Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll, with the puck on the bench-side, passed to Liam Ruck in the middle. He one-touched the puck, behind his back, to his older brother Markus who threw the puck towards the net looking to hit Tanner Molendyk with a pass at the side of the crease.

The puck bounced off a Swift Current defender and into the net, making it a 1-0 lead for the Tigers with his first WHL playoff goal. The assist was Gordon-Carroll’s first WHL playoff point. Markus was happy to get his first of the playoffs but also see his line get on the board.

“Our line has been generating here and there, but they haven’t gone it, so today was a big day for us,” Markus Ruck said.

That was the lone goal of the first period, both teams fired off 11 shots.

The Tigers made it a brief 2-0 lead 6:57 into the middle frame with another first of the playoffs.

Liam Ruck carried the puck into the Swift Current end on a three-on-three chance. He passed off to Gavin McKenna on the penalty box side of the rink and he set up Gordon-Carroll for a one-time blast that found twine for his first WHL playoff goal.

McKenna’s assist gives him points in 45 straight games, a stretch that is tied for second-longest in the CHL since 2000. He ties Brad Richards’ run of 45 straight regular season, playoff and Memorial Cup games with a point.

The Broncos showed life in the second, tying the game up in a span of 2:44.

While the Tigers had a power play, a shot from the point was blocked, sending forward Connor Dale in on a breakaway. He scored his second of the series, first while shorthanded, to make it a 2-1 game at 10:07.

The Broncos, on a, power play of their own, tied the game up with a blast from the point off the stick of Hunter Mayo. Carlin Dezainde and Clarke Caswell had the assists on the former Red Deer Rebel defenceman’s first of the series. That was the last shot to beat Tigers’ net minder Harrison Meneghin who made 25 saves in the win.

“He’s the most important guy to our team,” Gordon-Carroll said about Meneghin. “All the younger guys, we look up to him and he deserves the world.”

Across the ice from Meneghin, 20-year-old net minder Reid Dyck made 36 saves.

Medicine Hat quickly responded in the second, pumping life back into the 5,971 in attendance.

Ryder Ritchie was battling for the puck behind the Swift Current net as Wiesblatt skated through and scooped up the puck. He circled around to the front of the net as Ritchie broke to the side of the crease opposite the Tiger captain. He sent a pass to Ritchie who tapped it in for his fourth goal of the playoffs and the 3-2 lead with 6:16 left in the period. McKenna had the second assist on what was the eventual game winner.

Medicine Hat held the Broncos to eight shots in both the second and third period, leading the game 39-27. They also won the face-off battle, 35-27.

The Tigers held on in the third period as Swift Current pushed for their playoff lives. The Broncos had the goalie pulled with a little over 90 seconds left on the clock and the puck in Medicine Hat’s end. It was the top line of McKenna, Ritchie, Wiesblatt and Tanner Molendyk and Bryce Pickford on the backend helping preserve the lead with Meneghin.

The Tiger captain and Pickford held the puck along the boards off a face-off win to knock 30 seconds off the clock before they cleared it a couple of times before the buzzer sounded ending the game and series.

“What I was thinking is, don’t let them score,” Wiesblatt said. “Just pin it and don’t try to do too much. I kind of made a mistake putting the puck through the middle, but it came down to making the easy plays and we did.”

They held on for the win, punching the ticket to the second round of the playoffs. The Tigers are off until their second round opponent is decided, see Tuesday’s News for more on the first-round win and the upcoming series.