NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers captain Oasiz Weisblatt celebrates his second period goal in Game 4 in Prince Albert Thursday in the second period of the second-round series with the Raiders.
The Medicine Hat Tigers have put themselves into the Eastern Conference finals.
Harrison Meneghin made 18 saves as the Tigers shutout the Raiders 3-0 Thursday night, sweeping the second-round series 4-0.
It’s the first time the Tigers have been to the East finals since 2014 and their first sweep of a playoff series since a first-round rout of the Brandon Wheat Kings in 2017. Head coach Willie Desjardins tipped his hat to the Raiders saying the series was closer than the numbers showed.
“The series wasn’t the 4-0 series, if they came back and won, Game 2 goes to overtime they win two and it’s totally different,” Desjardins said. “They have a good team, that seven-game series in Edmonton hurt them a little bit. They had some guys who were tired, but I’ll take that, it’s not that I’m not happy about it I am. Tonight we played a really solid game throughout, it was a good win for us.”
Medicine Hat beat the Swift Current Broncos in five games to earn their spot in the second round. Prince Albert trailed the Edmonton Oil Kings 3-1 before winning three in a row to face the Tigers. Raiders interim head coach Ryan McDonald was proud of his group’s effort in the regular season and throughout the playoffs.
“The way that we continued to learn and work and improve throughout the season,” McDonald said. “To the division championship, coming back in the first round and again, continued to battle right until the bitter end.”
After a scoreless first period where the Tigers outshot the Raiders 17-6, they capitalized twice in the middle frame.
On a power play in the first five minutes of the frame, Tanner Molendyk threw a puck on net from the point that found twine for his second goal of the series, putting Medicine Hat ahead 1-0 4:03 into the frame. Gavin McKenna and Oasiz Wiesblatt had the assists, extending their point streaks to 49 and 19 games respectively.
McKenna’s 49-game point streak is one game away from tying Alexander Radulov’s CHL record of 50 straight games with a point, the longest in the CHL since 2000.
Molendyk’s goal proved to be the winner, a marker he says came from simple plays on the power play.
“We weren’t shooting enough on the power so I just thought I’d try to get it through but lucky enough to get it in and (Liam) Ruck had a nice screen there,” Molendyk said.
Medicine Hat scored pay dirt just over the halfway point of the frame, with Wiesblatt finding his spot. The Tigers captain carried the puck up the right side of the ice, skating in on Raider net minder Max Hildebrand before wiring a shot over his shoulder for his 10th of the playoffs and the 2-0 lead at 10:40. Josh Van Mulligen had the lone assist.
The Tigers outshot the Raiders 27-6 in the middle frame, leading the game in shots 44-12 after 40 minutes.
They kicked things off early in the third period, scoring before the one-minute mark.
Hunter St. Martin poked a puck away at the Tigers blue line and the Florida Panthers prospect flew up ice. He fired a shot through Hildebrand for his fourth of the playoffs and the 4-0 lead 59 seconds into the final frame.
Meneghin’s 16-save shutout is his second shutout of the playoffs. Across the ice from him, Hildebrand made 54 saves. Wiesblatt credited the Raider net minder for keeping the green and black in the series.
“He’s a hell of a goalie and we know he can make some key stops,” Wiesblatt said. “So we just knew we had to throw some pucks on net and a lot of guys on our squad stepped up, the whole lineup.”
Medicine Hat outshot the Raiders 57-18. Medicine Hat finished 1-3 on the power play, Raiders were held scoreless on their lone power play.
The Tigers will face either the Calgary Hitmen or Lethbridge Hurricanes in the Eastern conference finals. That second-round series is tied 2-2 with Game 5 Friday in Calgary.
