NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
The Medicine Hat Tigers wait to jump off the bench in the dying seconds of a 5-3, Game 4 win Wednesday at Lethbridge over the Hurricanes, winning the Eastern Conference Championship series in four games.
For the first time in 18 years, the Medicine Hat Tigers are off to the Western Hockey League Finals.
The Tigers beat the Lethbridge Hurricanes 5-3 Wednesday night, sweeping the Eastern Conference Championship series 4-0 to advance to the WHL Finals for the first time since 2007, when they won the franchises’ fifth title.
“It’s pretty special to win, this has been a really, really good group,” head coach Willie Desjardins said. “They’ve played above their level lots of times just because of their heart.
“Wiesblatt deserves a lot of credit for the character in their room. We have had some exceptional players, obviously (Gavin) McKenna has had a great run, our defence has been really solid and goaltending has been, so we’ve had lots of good things.”
The Hurricanes opened the scoring for a second straight game.
Just 2:32 into the game, the Hurricanes broke in with a three-man rush. Miguel Marques dished to Brayden Edwards who passed to Logan Warmold. The 19-year-old deked his way past Harrison Meneghin and scored on the awning cage for the 1-0 lead. Lethbridge scored first in Game 3, a 7-6 Tigers comeback win in overtime Tuesday.
The Tigers rebounded and responded with a pair of goals to lead 2-1 after 20 minutes.
A little over seven minutes after the Hurricanes’ kicked things off, Medicine Hat struck on a penalty kill.
Hunter St. Martin carried the puck up ice shorthanded and as he reached the goal line to the right of Jackson Unger, passed off to Mat Ward who deked his way out front and chipped a puck past Unger to make it a 1-1 game at 9:37. Bryce Pickford had the second assist.
They grabbed the lead on a power play 4:33 later.
Gavin McKenna had the puck on the wing in the Lethbridge zone. He spun to the middle of the ice, sending a pass to Pickford under a defenders stick and the Tigers blue liner wired home his seventh of the playoffs to make it a 2-1 game. Tanner Molendyk had the second assist, McKenna’s assist extends his point streak to 53 games.
Medicine Hat outshot the Hurricanes 13-9 in the frame. They added a pair of goals in the second period for a 4-1 lead after 40 minutes.
Misha Volotovskii had the puck on the wing to the left of Unger in the Hurricanes end and he fed Ethan Neutens in the slot for a one-timer. Neutens rang the puck off the cross bar, with the ricochet finding Volotovskii who knocked it home for his third of the playoffs and the 3-1 lead at 12:20.
They capped the frame off on another power play.
A rebound off a Ryder Ritchie shot found Ward at the bottom of the circles to the left of Unger and he roofed a shot over Unger for his second of the night and fifth of the playoffs. The goal was Ward’s third in the two road games in Lethbridge.
“It’s really important, these are the games I want to be a player and I’ve been doing a better job with them,” Ward said.
The Tigers carried the 4-1 lead through the last 2:08 of the period to lead after 40 minutes. They also led in shots 32-15 after two periods.
Lethbridge showed life in the third period, scoring a pair of goals in the first half of the frame to bring them within one. Kash Andersen scored 1:32 into the period, Luke Cozens and Trae Johnson had the assists on his second. Just under five minutes later, Anthony Wilson scored his third of the playoffs to make it a 4-3 Tiger lead. Caden price had the lone assist.
The Tigers held on with the one-goal lead, cementing the win with an empty netter from McKenna with 37 seconds left in the game. Oasiz Wiebslatt had the lone assist, extending his point streak to 24 games.
Meneghin made 18 saves for his 10th win of the playoffs. Unger made 34 saves. Medicine Hat outshot the Hurricanes 39-21, they went 2-2 on the power play. Lethbridge was held scoreless on their lone power play.
The Tigers await the winner of the Western Conference Finals, the Spokane Chiefs lead the best-of-seven series 3-0.
“This is pretty special,” Wiesblatt said. “We have a few guys who’ve gone to round three and didn’t make it through, or a lot of you guys like myself, who haven’t really been here. So for me, just making history, I’m just really excited and our group’s not done yet.”
See Friday’s News for a full recap of the series.
