Tigers double up Wheat Kings
Medicine Hat, AB – Tomas Mrsic (Surrey, BC) scored two second period goals, on route to an eventual 6-3 win over the Brandon Wheat Kings Tuesday night.
Both teams would have opportunities to get on the scoresheet first but a late penalty for the Wheat Kings in the first would see Gavin McKenna (Whitehorse, YT) beat a screened Carson Bjarnason for the first goal of the game giving the Tigers a 1-0 lead. Andrew Basha (Calgary, AB) would draw the lone assist and the Tigers would take that very lead going to the 2nd.
A busy second period would the Tigers score three straight goals including an early power play mark from Shane Smith (Cessford, AB) for his 29th of the season from Oasiz Wiesblatt (Calgary, AB) & McKenna makes it 2-0 Medicine Hat. Tomas Mrsic would then take over at 7:53 from a near impossible angle making it 3-0 beating Carson Bjarnason from Rhett Parsons would notch his 50th career WHL point on the goal. Mrsic wasn’t done at 11:20, he’d pick up a loose puck in the neutral zone and make the Wheat Kings pay with a brilliant mark for his 21st of the season and the Tigers would take a 4-0 lead.
Medicine Hat would run into penalty trouble as on a second 5 on 3, Brandon would counter with Jayden Wiens would eventually poke the puck past Zach Zahara (Rockyview, AB) and get the Wheat Kings on the board with 5:05 left in the period. They weren’t finished as with 1:55 remaining another trip to the net would see Jackson DeSouza would jam his third of the season to cut the Tigers lead to 4-2 heading to the 3rd period.
Into the third period Andrew Basha would create another three goal cushion for the Tigers at 13:02 for his 27th of the season from Tyler MacKenzie. But 1:30 later Jayden Wiens would salvage his second goal of the night from Charlie Elick at 14:32 to cut the Tiger lead to 5-3 for Brandon. With the net empty, Gavin McKenna would close out the night’s scoring with his 31st and second of the night to insure the Tigers 6-3 victory and move their record to 35-19-5-2.
With the win, the Tigers are now five points up on the Swift Current Broncos for 1st in the Central Division, while the Wheat Kings drop their record to 29-26-5-1.
Next up for Medicine Hat, a road trip to Lethbridge to battle their Highway 3 rival Hurricanes Wednesday night at the Enmax Centre. Puck-drop is set for 7 PM. The broadcast will be live with the home of the Tigers, Wild 94.5 with the Voice of the Tigers, Gino De Paoli, you can watch the game on WHL Live – Away Feed
