What the Saskatoon Blades nursed for 23 minutes, the Medicine Hat Tigers undid in just 93 seconds on the way to a 5-3 victory Saturday night.
At the end of their season-longest seven-game road trip, the Bridge City Bunch took advantage of some Bengals’ errors in the second period for a 3-2 lead. They held that until past the mid-point of the third period when Medicine Hat scored three times in a 1:33 span to claim their fourth straight triumph.
“It was a pretty good hockey game for the most part, especially considering where we were at on this road trip,” said Blue and Gold associate coach Ryan Marsh. “It’s been a long grind and I thought we found some energy and were able to get that lead going in the third (period). An unfortunate bounce off some shin pads for them really got them going.”
Brett Kemp touched off the Tigers’ annual Teddy Bear Toss by scoring on a power play at 5:23 of the first period. In the middle frame, goals by Riley McKay, Zach Huber and Kyle Crnkovic sandwiched an Elijah Brown tally as the Blades grabbed the 3-2 advantage. But, Eric Van Impe, Corson Hopwo and Jonathan Brinkman scored in short order to turn the game in Medicine Hat’s favour.
The loss meant Saskatoon finished the road trip with a 2-5-0 record, leaving them at 14-13-2 overall.
“Certainly there were tough games in the U.S. Division,” explained Marsh. “But, again, we reset ourselves and recommitted ourselves. I thought we finished strong at the end of this trip and we need to build on that.”
The Blades play six of their next seven games at SaskTel Centre through New Year’s Day. Saskatoon starts that run on Saturday against the Kelowna Rockets. Following is the official game story and summary from the W-H-L…
askatoon Blades 3 at Medicine Hat Tigers 5 – Status: Final
Saturday, November 30, 2019 – Canalta Centre – Medicine Hat, AB
Saskatoon 0 3 0 – 3
Medicine Hat 1 1 3 – 5
1st Period-1, Medicine Hat, Brett Kemp 8 (Brown, Hamblin), 5:23 (PP). Penalties-McKay Sas (tripping), 5:01; Krebs Mh (tripping), 12:08; Hamblin Mh (hooking), 12:50; McKay Sas (roughing), 14:05; Brown Mh (tripping), 15:57.
2nd Period-2, Saskatoon, McKay 11 (Robins, Kneen), 3:19. 3, Saskatoon, Huber 8 (Florchuk), 4:19. 4, Medicine Hat, Brown 4 (Hamblin), 6:34. 5, Saskatoon, Crnkovic 7 7:54. Penalties-Huber Sas (charging), 8:11; Wouters Sas (major-fighting), 13:13; Hopwo Mh (unsportsmanlike cnd., major-fighting), 13:13.
3rd Period-6, Medicine Hat, Van Impe 4 (Brown, Lockner), 11:07. 7, Medicine Hat, Hopwo 7 (Hamblin, Baker), 11:24. 8, Medicine Hat, Brinkman 6 (Van Impe, Chyzowski), 12:40. Penalties-McKay Sas (slashing), 15:49; McKay Sas (10-minute misconduct), 20:00; Lockner Mh (10-minute misconduct), 20:00.
Shots on Goal-Saskatoon 10-9-4-23. Medicine Hat 11-16-19-46.
Power Play Opportunities-Saskatoon 0 / 3; Medicine Hat 1 / 4.
Goalies-Saskatoon, MacInnes 3-3-0-0 (46 shots-41 saves). Medicine Hat, Sgaard 11-6-1-0 (23 shots-20 saves).
A-3,056
Referees-Trevor Peluk (79), Kevin Webinger (6).
Linesmen-Jared Capner (122), Will Mosswick (91).
