What a rally! – Tigers claim 7-6 OT win over Hurricanes

Medicine Hat takes 3-0 lead in WHL Eastern Conference final

Oasiz Wiesblatt scored the OT winner for the Tigers.

A game that looked strongly like it could be a Lethbridge Hurricanes victory turned into what might be a nightmare for their star goaltender Jackson Unger.

On Tuesday in Game 3 of the WHL’s Eastern Conference Championship Series, the host Hurricanes held leads of 3-0, 4-1, 5-3 and 6-5 over the Medicine Hat Tigers in a contest played before 4,794 spectators at VisitLethbridge.com Arena. With 70 seconds remaining in the third period and star netminder Harrison Meneghin pulled for an extra skater, Tigers offensive-defenceman Bryce Pickford put a seeing-eye shot from the right point through a screen to the top left corner of the Lethbridge net to force a 6-6 tie and overtime.

Just 2:41 into the extra session, Tigers superstar left-winger Gavin McKenna intercepted a Hurricanes pass in the Lethbridge zone. He jetted down the right faceoff circle flanked on his left by Tigers captain Oasiz Wiesblatt on a contested two-on-nothing break.

Staring down the two most dangerous offensive players in the WHL, Unger basically had no chance.

McKenna put a pass over top an outstretched stick of a diving Hurricanes back checker across the front of the Lethbridge net to Wiesblatt at the left side of the goal. Wiesblatt made no mistake knocking in the backdoor tap to give the Tigers a 7-6 victory to account for his 14^th goal and fourth winning tally of the post-season.

Gavin McKenna had three assists for the Tigers.

After scoring the goal, Wiesblatt put on an exuberant celebration and proceeded to quickly exit the ice surface with the rest of his teammates right on his tail.

With the win, the Tigers take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven set over their Highway 3 rivals. The Tigers will attempt to close the series out in Game 4 set for 7 p.m. local time on Wednesday at VisitLethbridge.com Arena.

McKenna finished the contest with four assists extending his consecutive games points streak between the regular season and post-season to 52 games. His streak extends back to November 6, 2024.

During the 52 games of the streak, McKenna has recorded 133 points coming off 39 goals and 94 assists. 

McKenna’s consecutive games points streak is the longest in the CHL since 2000 when you include play in both the regular season and post-season.

Star defenceman Tanner Molendyk had arguably the best night of any Tigers player on Tuesday. Molendyk, who has a signed NHL entry-level contract with the Nashville Predators, recorded one goal, three assists and a plus-three rating in the plus-minus rating.

Ryder Ritchie, Liam Ruck, Mathew Ward and Kadon McCann all had singles for the Tigers. Ward also had a goal that was waved off after a video review in the second period due to a hand pass leading to the creation of that tally.

Noah Chadwick had a pair of goals for the Hurricanes.

Captain Noah Chadwick had a pair of goals for the Hurricanes, while Kooper Gizowski, Kash Andresen, Miguel Marques and Brayden Yager all had singles.

Meneghin stopped 21 shots to pick up the win in goal for the Tigers. Unger turned away 38 shots to take the setback in net for the Hurricanes.

The Hurricanes took a 2-0 lead in the first period and went up 3-0 in the second before the Tigers got their first goal of the contest to make Lethbridge’s lead sit at 3-1. 

The hosts pushed their edge out to 4-1 before the Tigers closed the second frame scoring twice to cut Lethbridge’s advantage to 4-3 heading into the second intermission.

Lethbridge scored early in the third to assume a 5-3 advantage. Medicine Hat replied with a pair of goals to even the score at 5-5.

With 3:19 remaining in the third, the Hurricanes forecheck caused the Tigers to give up the puck to Yager positioned in front of the Medicine Hat net. Yager wired a shot to the left side of the Medicine Hat goal to put the Hurricanes up 6-5.

That set up the dramatics for Pickford to get the equalizer that forced overtime and for Wiesblatt to get the winner in the extra session.

Tanner Molendyk had one goal and three assists for the Tigers.

During the regular season, the Tigers topped the Eastern Conference and finished second overall in the WHL’s regular season with a 47-17-3-1 mark. In their last 46 games between the regular season and playoffs, the Tigers are an impressive 39-4-2-1. Medicine Hat has also won nine straight games.

The Hurricanes finished sixth overall in the WHL with a 42-21-3-2 mark. Lethbridge entered the Eastern Conference final after getting past the Calgary Hitmen in a grueling Eastern Conference semifinal series that went seven games.

Medicine Hat will try to advance to the WHL Championship Series for the first time since 2007, which was the last time the Tigers won the league title.

Chiefs rely on offence against Winterhawks

It appears the Spokane Chiefs seem set to ride a hot offence to a potential appearance in the WHL Championship Series.

The Chiefs jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the Portland Winterhawks in the best-of-seven Western Conference Championship Series thanks to their ability to score. Last Friday at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, the Chiefs tried to burn out the goal lights at the rink downing the Winterhawks 10-4.

On Sunday in Game 2 at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, the Chiefs outgunned the Winterhawks 6-5 in overtime. At the 2:25 mark of the extra session, the Winterhawks coughed the puck up to Chiefs left-winger Chase Harrington in their own zone.

Harrington broke in alone on the Portland goal down the right wing and ripped home the winner for the Chiefs.

So far in the series, three Chiefs players have recorded five points over the first two games of the set. Star right-winger Andrew Cristall and import right-winger Assanali Sarkenov both have four goals and one assist. Star centre and captain Berkly Catton has one goal and four assists.

Harrington has two goals and two assists in the series. Star left-winger Shea Van Olm has one goal and three assists in the set.

Cristall tops all scorers in the WHL Playoffs with 33 points coming off 17 goals and 16 assists. Catton also has 33 points coming off eight goals and 25 assists, but Cristall leads the scoring race due to having a higher goal total.

For the Winterhawks, star centre Diego Buttazzoni is having a big series with three goals and three assists. Winterhawks star 20-year-old captain Kyle Chyzowski has one goal and three assists in the set.

The Chiefs finished fourth overall in the WHL during the regular season with a 45-20-1-2 mark. The Winterhawks placed 12^th overall during the WHL regular season with a 36-28-3-1 record.

Portland is appearing in the Western Conference Championship Series for a second straight year. The Winterhawks were swept 4-0 in last year’s WHL Championship Series by the Moose Jaw Warriors.

The Winterhawks will have an opportunity to get back in this year’s Western Conference final against the Chiefs. Due to scheduling around other events at the Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena, the next three games of the Western Conference Championship Series are scheduled to be held in Portland.

Game 3 is set for Wednesday at 7 p.m. local time at Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Rush NLL semifinal schedule set, other notes

The Rush celebrate a goal from last Saturday.

The Saskatchewan Rush will be playing post-season games in May for the first time since 2019.

On Sunday, the Rush finalized their schedule for their best-of-three NLL semifinal series against the Halifax Thunderbirds. The Thunderbirds will host Game 1 of the series on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. local time at Scotiabank Centre.

The final two games of the series are set for the SaskTel Centre. Game 2 is slated for Saturday, May 10 at 7:30 p.m. If necessary, Game 3 will be played on Sunday, May 11 at 6 p.m.

The Rush finished second overall in the NLL regular season with a 13-5 mark. The Thunderbirds were third overall at 11-7.

Last Saturday, the Rush defeated the visiting Georgia Swarm 13-9 in a single elimination NLL quarter-final contest. Also last Saturday, the Thunderbirds downed the visiting Calgary Roughnecks 16-12 in another single elimination NLL quarter-final.

The Rush’s last previous appearance in a post-season game in May came back on May 3, 2019, when they fell 11-10 in overtime to the Colorado Mammoth.

The other NLL best-of-three semifinal sees the two-time defending league champion Buffalos Bandits, who topped the regular season at 13-5, take on the Vancouver Warriors, who finished fourth in the NLL regular season at 11-7. Game 1 of that series is set for Friday at 7:30 p.m. local time at the KeyBank Center in Buffalo, N.Y.

• Portland Winterhawks overager Tyson Jugnauth tops all defencemen in scoring in the WHL Playoffs. In Portland’s 16 post-season games, Jugnauth has posted 29 points coming off four goals and 25 assists.
• Spokane Chiefs netminder Dawson Cowan tops all puck stoppers in wins so far in the WHL Playoffs at 10. Cowan also had a 3.34 goals against average and a .872 save percentage in the post-season.
• There have been a total of seven shutouts so far in the WHL Playoffs. Medicine Hat Tigers netminder Harrison Meneghin and Victoria Royals goalie Johnny Hicks have each collected two shutouts.
• There have been four series-deciding Game 7s played in this year’s WHL Playoffs. A total of three series-deciding Game 7s were played combined in the 2023 and 2024 WHL post-seasons.

• On Wednesday, April 9, I had new content appear on the Howe Happenings blog that supports the Gordie Howe Sports Complex. I put together a feature on Carter Beck, who is a star outfielder with the Saskatoon Berries of the Western Canadian Baseball League. Beck is a homegrown high-end player from Saskatchewan growing up in Carnduff, which is a town with a population around 1,200 located in the southeast corner of the province. Beck had a classic small town introduction to the sport watching his father, Blair, play senior baseball. The piece on Beck can be found by clicking right here. I also put together a photo roundup that is anchored by pictures of the Saskatoon Badgers Rugby Club taking part in a training session at the Indoor Training Centre. Last September, the Badgers claimed the division 1 provincial championship. It also includes photos from baseball, cricket, skiing and softball. That post can be found by clicking right here.

If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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