The vaunted Medicine Hat Tigers offense showed up in a big way against the Wheat Kings in their first meeting of the season, and unfortunately, the Wheat Kings struggled to slow them down once they got rolling.
Brady Turko scored his first of the season, and Carson Bjarnason stopped 31 shots, but it was nowhere near enough as the Wheat Kings fell 6-1.
“I thought we chased it right from the puck drop, if you followed the game you could see that,” said head coach and GM Marty Murray. “Most of our penalties were caused by being a step behind, hooking and tripping and those kinds of penalties. They kill you. They (the Tigers) are too good.”
The Wheat Kings killed off the first Tigers’ power play of the game even though it spent nearly the full two minutes in their zone, but they couldn’t hold off the second forever. Late in that second man advantage for Medicine Hat, Oasiz Wiesblatt leaned into a slap shot and broke the ice.
The penalty kill was busy for the Wheat Kings again in the second, but the Tigers did their damage at even strength. First, off a strange turnover, Hunter St. Martin picked a corner from a tricky angle. Then, with Bjarnason’s stick knocked out of his hand, Niilopekka Muhonen walked in and fired home another insurance marker.
Though the Wheat Kings began to press early in the third, they pressed a little too hard and gave the Tigers an odd man rush. Marcus Pacheco took advantage, snapping one low-glove on the 2-on-1.
Offense continued to flow for Medicine Hat. Gavin McKenna struck at 4-on-3 to make it 5-1 with a crafty wrist shot, and Kadon McCann took a favorable bounce and drove the net with it, sneaking home the sixth goal.
A last-minute sign of life came from Turko and Jaxon Jacobson as Jacobson outwaited a couple of defensemen to feed Turko for a tap-in. It proved to be the final goal of the game.
The Wheat Kings have no opportunity to dwell on the loss. It’s back to work tomorrow night against the Lethbridge Hurricanes at 8:00 Central Time.
