Tigers Dispatch Defending Champs 6-3
October 29, 2023 - Western Hockey League (WHL)
Medicine Hat Tigers News Release
Medicine Hat, AB - The Medicine Hat Tigers capped off a perfect weekend at home with a 6-3 win over the defending WHL Champion Seattle Thunderbirds Saturday night.
The first period saw the Tigers and Thunderbirds putting each other through the paces early on in first period and it would stay scoreless till a Seattle power play as the Tigers on the penalty kill would open the scoring thanks to Shane Smith (Cessford, AB). As he would power his way to backhand a partial break past Thunderbirds starter Spencer Michnik to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.
1:02 later the Tigers would strike again as Reid Andresen (Saskatoon, SK) would wrist a shot through to give the Orange & Black a 2-0 lead from Oasiz Wiesblatt (Calgary, AB) & Andrew Basha (Calgary, AB). Medicine Hat would outshoot Seattle 10-8 heading to the second.
The defending champs would get on the board early in the 2nd as Luca Hauf would score just 15 seconds into the 2nd period to cut the Tiger lead to 2-1, but Medicine Hat would regain the lead at 11:59 as Tyler MacKenzie (Red Deer, AB) would continue his scoring ways with his 4th of the weekend. As Cayden Lindstrom (Chetwynd, AB) and Rhett Parsons (Cremona, AB) would add assists on the mark to give the Tigers a two-goal leading heading to the third period.
In third period, the Tigers would add to their lead as Nate Corbet (Calgary, AB) would get his first Western Hockey League goal at 4:15 from a relentless forecheck by Vasyl Spilka (Liberec, CZE) & Kadon McCann (Cochrane, AB) to push the Medicine Hat lead to 4-1.
But the defending league champs wouldn't go away quietly as they'd respond in a big way as Antonio Martorana would end up beating Tigers starter Evan May (Nanaimo, BC) at 5:51 to cut the lead to 4-2, then the T-Birds were at it again as Coster Dunn 25 seconds later at 6:17 making it a tight 4-3 lead for the homeside.
But the Tigers would find a way to close out their 5th home game of the season as Reid Andresen would shelf home his 3rd of the season and second of the night at 15:54 for that much needed insurance from Oasiz Wiesblatt & Gavin McKenna (Whitehorse, YT). Then with the Thunderbird net empty, Cayden Lindstrom would score his 13th goal of the year into the open net sealing the victory at 6-3 from Andrew Basha.
The Tiger penalty kill ran a clean sheet going 3-3 while the power play didn't get any ice time as not a single infraction was called against the Seattle.
Next up for the Tigers a home game Wednesday night against the number one ranked team in the CHL the Portland Winterhawks.
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