TIGERS PUNCH THEIR TICKET TO THE WHL PLAYOFFS!
Medicine Hat, AB – A 2-0 rally after the first period saw the Medicine Hat Tigers clinch the 8th and final playoff in the WHL’s Eastern Conference Playoffs Saturday night at Co-op Place.
The Broncos would provide the offence in the 1st period as it was Connor Hvidston opening the scoring 3:16 into the first period snapping a shot from the left circle from Josh Filmon. The Tigers would be penalized three times in the first period and on the Broncos second opportunity with the man advantage, a net front scramble would finally see Josh Davies slide home his 20th goal of the season past Tigers starter Beckett Langkow (Vegreville, AB). Shots were dead even at 10-10 after 1.
Into the middle frame the Tigers got to work quickly off a penalty kill as Tyler MacKenzie (Red Deer, AB) buries his 16th from Gavin McKenna (Whitehorse, YT) & Brenden Lee (Seattle, WA) just 14 seconds into the period giving the Co-op Place faithful something to cheer about making it a 2-1 deficit. The Tigers would tie things up on a 5 on 3 power play at 7:52 thanks to Oasiz Wiesblatt (Calgary, AB) tucking the puck over Broncos goaltender Reid Dyck for his 26th of the season and his 11th power play goal to draw the game even. As the Tigers push in second period continued with 16 shots in the frame, they’d make paydirt once more as Dallon Melin (Czar, AB) on his 21st birthday taps in his 16th to make it 3-2 Tigers on their second power play goal of the period from Dru Krebs (Okotoks, AB) & Tomas Mrsic (Surrey, BC) at 15:35.
It was thrilling end to the Regular Season in the third period as the Tigers would get a vital insurance goal from Cayden Lindstrom (Chetwynd, BC) six minutes into the third on a work below the Broncos net from Brayden Boehm (Nanaimo, BC) and Rhett Parsons to give the Tigers the 4-2 lead. But the Broncos wouldn’t go away as just past the half way mark of the 3rd period on a Swift Current power play. Josh Filmon would one-time a blast from the right circle beating Beckett Langkow for his 47th of the year creating a nail biting finish. A late high sticking penalty to Dru Krebs with 3:30 left on the clock and the Broncos would eventually pull their goaltender and with a fury of chances the Broncos thought they had the equalizer as Brady Birnie would hit the post and that was as close as the Broncos would get as the Tigers would eventually run down the clock in front of 4506 strong at Co-op Place, getting back to the post season after a one year absence.
The Tigers special teams would come through on the power play going 2/6 while the penalty kill was busy going 3/4. With the win the Tigers finish the regular season with a 30-29-8-1 record and for the 40th time in franchise history.
Next up is Round 1 of the WHL Playoff against the WHL Regular Season Champion Winnipeg ICE. Where the Tigers recorded a 1-3 mark against Winnipeg.
The full Schedule can be found below. Playoff Ticket Information will be release ASAP.
