PHOTO COURTESY JOHN KELLER/TRI-CITY AMERICANS
Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Harrison Meneghin grabs at a puck under his blocker in the second period of a 3-1 win Saturday over the Tri-City Americans.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers opened the U.S. division road trip on a high note.
The Tigers scored three times in the third period to beat the Spokane Chiefs on Friday and topped the Tri-City Americans 3-1 on Saturday for a 2-0 start to the six-game trip. The pair of wins also extends the Tigers’ win streak to nine games.
“Spokane was a really good team, they’re quick, transitioned well, lots of skill; so to come back in the third and get a win was a great way to start the trip,” associate coach Joe Frazer said. “Tri-City was big and heavy, forechecked hard, went hard to the net, two different styles. We played really well against Tri-City, so it’s been a great start.”
The Tigers trailed Spokane 2-0 early in the third period before mounting the comeback in 5:01 of action. Josh Van Mulligen, Gavin McKenna (power play) and Jonas Woo all scored in that span to complete the comeback.
On Saturday, a pair of second period goals from Bryce Pickford and Mat Ward led the Tigers. After Tri-City scored to start the third, Oasiz Wiesblatt scored on a power play for the 3-1 finish.
Frazer says finding the wins in different fashions brings confidence.
“We’re find those different ways to win against opponents with different styles and different game plans,” Frazer said. “This whole U.S. division, there’s lots of good teams, there’s some different styles of play, so it’s testing us. But the most important thing is just making sure we’re playing our way, playing Tigers hockey.
“Making sure we’re sticking to that and sticking to the game plan. There’s a lot of belief in the room, no matter what the score is, we’re still in it.”
McKenna extended his point streak to 22 games with the goal and two assists Friday and a pair of assists in Saturday’s win. That streak, the longest active in the WHL, sits one game behind Calgary Hitmen forward Ben Kindel’s streak of 23 games with a point that was snapped in the Tigers’ 3-0 shutout win on Jan. 17.
The goaltender of record in that shutout win over Calgary, Harrison Meneghin, continued his run as the WHL’s goalie of the week the league announced Monday. The 20-year-old Tampa Bay Lighting prospect was named the goalie of the week for a second week in a row, third week this season, he picked up both wins over the weekend, working a 1.50 goals against average and a .941 save percentage in the set.
Since returning from the lower-body injury suffered in November, Meneghin has won five straight games with am 1.18 GAA and a .940 SV%. He’s worked his way up the WHL goalie charts, sitting second in GAA (2.49) and ninth in SV% (.901).
Frazer tipped his cap to the net minder’s work as of late and he credited Meneghin with making plays beyond stopping the puck.
“What goes unnoticed is his play with the puck, he’s really helped our breakouts,” Frazer said. “Teams dump the puck in, and if it’s not in the corners he can get out to them and he plays it quick and hard, and it’s really helped our breakouts. We’re spending less time in the D-zone. And then when we have a breakdown, he’s been there to bail us out.”
The pair of wins were much-needed for the Tigers (30-15-2) as they remain just one point ahead of the Calgary Hitmen (28-12-3-2) for first place in both the Eastern conference and Central division. Calgary still has two games in hand.
After a travel day Sunday and a skate Monday in Wenatchee, the U.S. division trip starts back up tonight as the Tigers face the Wild for the first time on the road. They’ll then head to Everett on Wednesday to face the WHL leading Silvertips. Wednesday’s matchup, earmarked as the WHL’s ‘Wednesday night in the Dub’ contest, will be free to watch on YouTube.
Before then, Frazer says they’re just focused on the Wild who have won four of their last 10, but have also won 13 of 22 games if they score first. He’s looking for the orange and black to continue what has been a successful run of playing Tigers hockey.
“They’re really good with the lead, so it’s going to be important we have a good start,” Frazer said. “They had the best penalty kill in the league up to maybe a couple weeks ago, so it’s aggressive (eight-best entering Tuesday). Their special teams are good, so it’s another new challenge/ It’s a rink we’ve never played in, so it’s nice to get a practice here today and that is going to be a big one Tuesday. So we just have to focus one game at a time.”
