Monday Morning Memoir: Fireball Friday Goes Up in Smoke

Category: ArticleMay 20, 2024

Medicine Hat, AB – As the off-season rolls on, the Medicine Hat Tigers will be looking back on dates, games, teams and players from our storied history from now until the beginning of the 2024-2025 season. In today’s Monday Morning Memoir, “Fireball Friday Goes Up In Smoke”.

The rivalry between the Swift Current Broncos and Medicine Hat Tigers has reached the ultimate highs of emotions, adrenaline and creating classic moments over the past couple of seasons, now with the Broncos going back to the East Division next season there won’t be as many meetings as previous but still re-igniting the rivalry that’s a mere two and half hours away from each others home buildings.

Early on in the the 2023-24 season, the Tigers started off with a 3-1-1 record through the first five games. After a devastating loss in Regina on October 4, the turnaround to a Friday night in Swift Current was a tough one which turned in simply a beautiful mess.

The Tigers had only one win in Swift Current during the post COVID-19 era, it didn’t start out well at the InnovationPlex as the Broncos scored three goals in the first 7:41 before Gavin McKenna would finally stop the initial shot fired by the Broncos in the first but immediately the deficit went back to three as Josh Filmon scored a shorthanded goal at 18:20 to make it 4-1 Swift Current after 1.

Cue the first comeback for the Tigers in this game starting at the 4:34 mark of the middle stanza as Andrew Basha would score on a Tiger power play to cut the lead to 4-2. Basha would then get his first shorthanded goal of the campaign at 9:34 making it a one-goal game. Captain Tyler MacKenzie would then tie the game at 4-4 at 12:33.

Less than two minutes later, the Broncos started another surge of goals against Medicine Hat. Connor Hvidston and Rylan Gould would make it 6-4 after 2, followed by another Hvidston goal 4:08 into the third and it was 7-4 Broncos and the confines of Swift Current were right on top of the Tigers but cue the second comeback.

Gavin McKenna at 7:30 would get it back to two goals down, Shane Smith on a Medicine Hat power play at 11:19 to make it a one goal game. Then a hush throughout the InnovationPlex as Josh Van Mulligen would fire a shot through traffic at 14:08 to tie the game at 7-7.

At the end of the third period the Broncos would take a pair of penalties which would lead to a Tigers 5 on 3 to start overtime. As the penalty was about to expire, Gavin McKenna would walk-in and shelf his hat-trick game-winning goal at 1:27 to give the Tigers their first win of the season series against the Broncos.

Visit the highlight video below!