NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Liam Ruck celebrates his second power play goal in the second period of an 8-1 win Saturday night at Co-op Place over the Swift Current Broncos.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com
On the eve of Super Bowl LX, the Medicine Hat Tigers didn’t need a two-point conversion to put up on eight-spot.
The Tigers scored eight unanswered goals Saturday night, beating the Swift Current Broncos 8-1 at Co-op Place. It was a change of pace from Friday night when the Tigers put up 50 shots in Swift Current but needed a last-minute goal to defeat the Broncos 2-1.
“Swift Current played well early, we didn’t generate a lot, the difference was our special teams,” head coach Willie Desjardins said. “Our penalty killing was excellent, our power play turned it around in the second for us, which made a huge difference. (Carter) Casey was excellent in net tonight.”
The Tigers killed off eight penalties and the power play scored on all three of their man advantages after going 1-20 in the previous six games.
“It’s really big, we need that power play to be good,” Desjardins said. “They’ve been good for us all year, so it’s good to see them get rewarded tonight.”
On the penalty side, Desjardins says they can’t put themselves in the spot for the officials to make calls.
“Because if you do, you’re not going to like that they call,” Desjardins said. “Sometimes you just won’t. So we have to be better than that.”
The Broncos opened the scoring on a two-on-one, Stepan Kuryachenkov keeping down the left wing and potting his 12th at 12:55 of the first.
That was the lone blemish for starter Carter Casey who finished with 17 saves for his 13th win of the season.
“I knew they’re a team that works heavily off the rush, so prepare for that a little bit,” Casey said. “But just take it one step at a time, just stay in the present was key for me tonight, especially with all the penalties, right? When they go five-on-three, they kill the five on three off and make a five-on-four, just kind of break it up and put it into segments.”
Medicine Hat rattled off a pair, the first a net-front tap-in from Dayton Reschny 1:15 after Swift Current scored. Tyson Moss had the pass from the corner on Reschny’s ninth, Carter Cunningham had the second assist.
Luke Cozens was sprung at the Broncos’ blue line with a pass from Moss, skating in and scoring on Archer Cooke for the 2-1 lead after 20 minutes.
The first was a busy frame for the Tigers penalty kill, killing off a five-on-three advantage for Swift Current and two other penalties.
After the penalty kill was put to work in the first, the Tigers power play found success in the second.
The Tigers started the frame with 31 seconds of a four-on-four before having 3:29 of power play time after Liam Ruck was high sticked on a face-off to end the first. Liam scored on a cross-ice pass from Markus Ruck six seconds into the man advantage. Jonas Woo had the second assist.
A little over a minute later, Noah Davidson was getting tripped up at the front of the net and he passed to Liam for the one-timer and the 4-1 lead. Andrew Basha had the second assist on Liam’s 32nd.
Kadon McCann scored one rebound with 3:40 left in the period, knocking in a rebound at the side of the net. Niilopekka Muhonen and Cozens had the assists on his 17th. In the dying seconds of the middle frame, Davidson tipped in a shot from Markus on a power play that left .05 seconds left on the clock. Woo with the second assist on Davidson’s 17th.
Swift Current’s Cooke, after making 48 saves in Friday’s loss, was lifted after 40 minutes Saturday with 19 saves on 25 shots. Aiden Eskit made nine saves in the third period.
The Tigers added a pair in the third, Woo hammered home a shot from the top of the circles for his 25th, Moss has the lone assist for his second helper of the evening. Cozens scored his second of the night, sprung on a shorthanded rush by Josh Van Mulligen, for his 21st and the 8-1 final.
The former Lethbridge Hurricane finished with two goals and an assist, snapping a five-game point drought.
“It’s huge for my confidence, the last couple of games I’ve been fighting it a little bit,” Cozens said. “So to be able to put it in and see how happy the guys are for me, it’s definitely a confidence boost.”
They outshot Swift Current 36-18 and won the face-off battle, 38-27. Tigers (36-9-3-3) are off until Friday when they head to Red Deer to face the Rebels before hosting the Western Conference leading Everett Silvertips on Feb. 14.
