Wild West Showdown at Co-op Place leads to Tigers 10-7 victory over Broncos
Medicine Hat, AB –
The home side got the scoring started in the opening stanza with a quick one-time blast from Tyler MacKenzie (Red Deer, AB) for his second of the pre season from Dru Krebs (Okotoks, AB) who made his pre season mark for the Tigers along with Kadon McCann (Cochrane, AB) to give the Tigers a 1-0 lead just 2:33 in.
Just before the six minute mark the Tigers would strike again as Andrew Basha (Calgary, AB) would bang home his first of the pre season from Cayden Lindstrom (Chetwynd, BC) & Krebs with his second point of the period.
The Broncos would respond as Matthew Ward would get the visitors on the board to cut the home side’s lead to 2-1 at 7:40 from Luke Mistelbacher & Clarke Caswell.
Plenty of end to end action would be the tale to finish the final ten minutes of the frame as Tigers starter Evan May (Nanaimo, BC) would be busy keep the Tiger lead safe. That would allow Tomas Mrsic (Surrey, BC) would sneak in down the left wing side and beat Koen Tyssen to make it 3-1 Tigers from Dru Krebs who gets his third point of the period.
The two goal lead would be short lived as Ward would get his second of the period just nine seconds later at 10:57 to make it just a 3-2 Medicine Hat lead. Both teams would trade chances and Swift Current would get a late power play but couldn’t solve the Tigers for the equalizer and the 1st period would conclude with the Tigers taking a 3-2 lead to the break.
Off to the second period where the Tigers & Broncos would stay scoreless till 6:17 when Clarke Caswell would tie things up at 3-3 for his first of the pre season from Mistelbacher & Ward.
The Tigers would get the lead back just 43 seconds later on their second power play of the night as Cayden Lindstrom would finish off a passing play from Andrew Basha & Gavin McKenna (Whitehorse, YT) for his second of the pre season.
But on another power play for the Tigers it would be the Broncos responding with a shorthanded goal from Luke Mistelbacher 14:53 from Brady Birnie to square things up at 4-4.
With just over a minute to go in the 2nd, Krebs would get his 1st of the pre season to help the Tigers regain the lead at 5-4 for his 4th point of the night.
The Tigers wouldn’t let off to start the 3rd at the 2:14 mark as Shane Smith (Cessford, AB) would make it 6-4 on a feed from Brayden Boehm. But continue their push of offence from Braeden Wynne would follow a 1:23 later as Braeden Wynne (Coquitlam,BC) from Lindstrom & Hayden Harsanyi (Calgary, AB).
Brett Calhoon would push the lead to 8-4 on scramble at the left side of the Bronco net at 5:20 leading to a Swift Current timeout.
Goals would continue to come through in this pre season affair as Matthew Ward would score his 3rd of the night to make it 8-5. Tyler MacKenzie would get his 2nd of the game and third of the pre season to push the lead to 9-5. But Rylan Gould would get Swift Current within three to make the score 9-6.
Both the Tigers and Broncos would exchange tallies once more with MacKenzie getting his hat-trick goal while Sawyer Dingman would score the final goal of the night for a 7th goal for the Broncos.
The onslaught of goals and opportunities allowed the Tigers to move to 3-0 in the pre season while the Broncos drop to 1-2.
Medicine Hat would finish 1/3 on the power play while going 6/7 on the penalty kill.
Next up is the 2023 pre season finale for both the Broncos and Tigers at the iPlex Saturday night in Swift Current. Puck-drop is 7 PM.
