NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Oasiz Wiesblatt celebrates his power play overtime winning goal in a 3-2 victory Tuesday at Co-op Place over the Red Deer Rebels.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers kicked off 2024 in winning fashion.
Medicine Hat won their first game of the new year, beating the Red Deer Rebels 3-2 in overtime Tuesday night at Co-op Place.
A back-and-forth game that ends with seven seconds left of the overtime frame is the exact type of close contest winning goaltender Ethan McCallum expects and is looking forward to in the second half of the season.
“Honestly, you have to love those tight games, that’s all the second half is going to be,” McCallum said. “It’s going to be close, no more of those 7-2, 8-2, out-of-function games. So now that we’re getting into teams who are getting better it’s just more fun to have the anticipation there, and to come out with the two points is unreal. That’s an amazing shot by Oasiz there at the last minute.”
The 19-year-old Oasiz Wiesblatt had the game winner in overtime, his second of the night and 13th of the season, adding an assist as well in the contest that was led by the Calgary product.
Wiesblatt, who has seven game-winning goals on the season after Tuesday’s contest, says the win gives them a lot of energy coming off a two-game slide form 2023.
“Even right now with the boys working out, there’s a lot of energy and it brings the group together tighter,” Wiesblatt said. “It’s a big bonus to the week and just kind of prepare and practice for the next three.”
Head coach Willie Desjardins says Wiesblatt has been good for the last month and has enjoyed seeing him step up in the big moments.
“He’s played hard, he competes so hard and just competes every shift, which is good,” Desjardins said. “He’s confident out there, he’s certainly been a leader for us. He’s got a couple key winners now for us and that’s huge.”
After Red Deer opened the scoring, Gavin McKenna scored Medicine Hat’s first goal of the night for his 12th of the season. Andrew Basha had two assists in the contest and defenceman Dru Krebs had a helper for his 100th career WHL point.
The 20-year-old defenceman played a big role in the game as Medicine Hat’s lineup depleted to 16 skaters during the contest. Bogdans Hodass was handed a five-minute major and game misconduct for a boarding penalty in the second period and in the third period, 16-year-old forward Kadon McCann received a game misconduct after a fight.
The Tigers were already without forwards Cayden Lindstrom (upper body) and Tomas Mrsic (illness) for the fourth straight game, with both still dealing with day-to-day ailments.
Desjardins credited his senior D-man for stepping up with the depleted lineup.
“Krebs played great, he’s the guy who with the way he plays can clock lots of minutes,” Desjardins said. “He took lots of minutes for us, did a great job and that was big on his part. But it’s a team effort. We had lots of guys who were playing, lots of young guys played in our lineup and did a good job.”
