Ritchie on fire for Tigers at Memorial Cup tourney

Medicine Hat improves to 2-0 with 3-1 win over Wildcats

Ryder Ritchie is flourishing in the spotlight of the Memorial Cup tournament.

On Monday, the star right-winger recorded a pair of goals and an assist to power his WHL champion Medicine Hat Tigers to a 3-1 victory over the QMJHL champion Moncton Wildcats in a round robin contest playing before a sellout crowd of 4,512 spectators at Coliseum Sun Life Financial in Rimouski, Quebec. In two games at the event that crowns a CHL champion, Ritchie has recorded three goals, one assist and a plus-two in the plus-minus department as the Tigers have posted a 2-0 record.

Medicine Hat is guaranteed to play in at least Friday’s semifinal contest of the playoff round. The Tigers close their round robin schedule on Tuesday taking on the OHL champion London Knights (5 p.m. Alberta and Saskatchewan time, TSN).

The Knights are also 2-0 in the round robin portion of the tournament. The winner of the clash between the Tigers and Knights will earn a berth in the tournament’s championship game on Sunday.

The Knights topped the OHL standings with a 55-11-2 mark and were rated second in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings released on March 25. They advanced through the OHL Playoffs with a 16-1 record.

The Wildcats fell to 0-2 with the setback. They will close the round robin portion of the tournament taking on the host Rimouski Oceanic on Wednesday (5 p.m. Alberta and Saskatchewan time, TSN).

The Oceanic also have an 0-2 mark at the tourney. The club that wins Wednesday’s clash between the Wildcats and Oceanic advances to the tournament’s semifinal contest on Friday. The squad that loses will be eliminated from the event.

The Oceanic were second overall in the QMJHL’s regular season standings with a 46-14-2-2 mark. They posted a 14-9 record in the QMJHL Playoffs falling in six games in the league championship series to the Wildcats. Rimouski was rated fourth in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings.

During the post-game press conference on Monday, the action on the ice between the Tigers and Wildcats fell to the background after Wildcats head coach Gardiner MacDougall said he found out about a tragedy in his family before the contest started.

Ryder Ritchie had two goals and an assist for the Tigers.

About 20 minutes before the Wildcats faced the Tigers, Rimouski RCMP contacted Moncton general manager Taylor MacDougall to let him know that his father-in-law Pat Buckley had a heart attack while golfing in Rimouski and passed away. Taylor is Gardiner’s son.

About five minutes before puck drop, Taylor relayed the devastating news of Buckley’s passing to Gardiner. Gardiner said Monday’s contest was the hardest game he ever had to coach.

During post-game interviews, Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins and Tigers captain Oasiz Wiesblatt passed on condolences to the MacDougall family.

As for Monday’s game itself, the Tigers broke through on the scoreboard at the 4:24 mark of the opening frame on Ritchie’s first tally of the contest. Tigers superstar left-winger Gavin McKenna broke down the right-wing in the Moncton zone on a rush.

He fired a shot that went wide of the Moncton net, but the puck rebounded off the boards to Wiesblatt positioned at the right side of the Moncton goal. Wiesblatt passed the puck across the front of the net to Ritchie, who buried a shot to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.

The Tigers would outshoot the Wildcats 13-11 in the first period, but the Wildcats came with a big push back after the Tigers scored in the frame. Tigers star 20-year-old netminder Harrison Meneghin made three big saves that allowed his squad to head into the first intermission with a one-goal lead.

First, Meneghin made a left pad save to deny Wildcats right-winger Alex Mercier on a breakaway. Following that chance, Meneghin denied 19-year-old import right-winger Juraj Pekarcik on a wraparound. Meneghin then made a right pad save to stone Wildcats left-winger Maxime Cote on a chance alone in front of the Medicine Hat net.

The Tigers hit another gear in the second period outshooting the Wildcats 17-6 in the frame. Early in the stanza, Tigers import defenceman Veeti Vaisanen put a shot on net that came out from under Wildcats star 20-year-old netminder Mathis Rousseau and was trickling towards the Moncton net.

Wildcats defenceman Loke Johansson swept the puck out of the crease of the Moncton net to thwart the scoring chance.

The Tigers thought they went up 2-0 when it appeared super rookie right-winger Liam Ruck scored a power-play goal from the front of the Moncton net. Ruck kicked the puck into the goal from outside the crease, which would be a goal in the WHL but is not a goal in the rulebook used at the Memorial Cup. The tally was disallowed and that ruling held up after a video review.

Gavin McKenna had one goal and one assist for the Tigers.

Still working on that same power play, Ritchie drove home a shot from the top of the right faceoff circle in the Moncton zone for his second goal of the night to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.

Just 31 seconds into the third period, the Wildcats got some traction after defenceman Dyllan Gill directed a point shot at the Medicine Hat net that deflected off a Tigers player into the goal. Gill’s mark cut the Tigers lead to 2-1.

With less than two minutes to play in the third, the Wildcats pulled Rousseau for an extra attacker.

The Wildcats had a clunky line change, and with 1:22 remaining in the third, they were called for having too many men on the ice. The infraction seemed to take the wind out of the Wildcats sails when it came to making one last gasp push to get the equalizer.

On the short-handed situation, the Wildcats were able to get Rousseau pulled again to play the Tigers five skaters against five skaters with about 21 seconds remaining in the frame.

With 7.3 seconds remaining in the third, McKenna fired a puck from his own zone and banked the puck off the right post of the Moncton net into the open cage to cement a 3-1 victory for his squad. McKenna’s tally was the rare power-play goal that was scored into an empty net.

Meneghin stopped 21 shots to pick up the win in goal for Medicine Hat. Rousseau turned away 38-of-40 shots to take the setback in net for Moncton.

Star centre Cayden Lindstrom played his first game of the Memorial Cup tournament for the Tigers on Monday. Lindstrom is still on the comeback trail from a long term back injury.

Medicine Hat finished second overall in the WHL’s regular season standings with a 47-17-3-1 mark and posted a 16-2 record in the WHL Playoffs capturing the Ed Chynoweth Cup as league champions. The Tigers were rated third in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings that came out on March 25.

The Wildcats topped the QMJHL regular season standings with a 53-9-2 mark and were rated first in the final CHL Top 10 Rankings. In the QMJHL Playoffs, the Wildcats went 16-3 to capture the league title.

Harrison Meneghin stopped 21 shots in goal for the Tigers.

The Tigers have won 46 out of their last 54 games including play in the WHL regular season, the WHL Playoffs and the Memorial Cup tournament.

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