WHL Medicine Hat Tigers

Mckenna Sets up Tigers' Opening Weekend Win over Hurricanes

September 25, 2022 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Medicine Hat Tigers News Release


Medicine Hat, AB - 2629 in attendance at CO-OP Place witnessed history as the Medicine Hat Tigers opened the 2022-23 WHL Season with a 9-1 win over their Highway 3 rivals the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

After giving up a Brayden Edwards powerplay goal 2:18 into the opener, the Tigers went on a tear in the 1st period as Oasiz Wiesblatt (Calgary, AB) scored his first of two on the evening just 2:05 later to tied the game and then cue Gavin McKenna (Whitehorse, YT), the 1st Overall Pick in the 2022 WHL Bantam Draft set up Reid Andresen (Saskatoon, SK) on the Tigers 1st powerplay to give Medicine Hat their 1st lead and they'd never look back after that. Andrew Basha (Calgary, AB) & Owen McNeil (Calgary, AB) potted their first goals of the season to make it 4-1 Tigers after 1.

Cue the 2nd period and Tigers took their opportunities and ran with them as defencemen Bogdans Hodass (Jelgava, Lativa) & Rhett Parsons (Cremona, AB) scored their first and netting their first multi-point games of the season early in the second to chase Lethbridge starter Jared Picklyk at 3:48 of the second stanza. The Tigers would add another pair of markers just half way through the game as Wiesblatt notched his second of the night while Brenden Lee (Seattle, WA) also added to the scoring with his first thanks to McKenna's 3rd point of the night.

Off to the 3rd period where the Tigers would put one up for good measure as Tyler Mackenzie (Red Deer, AB) banged home a McKenna shot at the 8:00 mark for his 1st and the 4th point of the night for the 14 year old.

McKenna capped the night off as the game's 1st star with 4 assists while seven other Tigers had multi-point games. Beckett Langkow recorded his first win of season with a 25 save effort.

Next up for the Tigers is a trip down the very highway their opponents came on Saturday next Friday (September, 30) to face the Hurricanes at the Enmax Centre at 7 PM. You can catch the game on the home of the Tigers CHAT 94.5 starting with the pre-game show at 6:45.

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Western Hockey League Stories from September 25, 2022


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