Lightning prospect Meneghin slams the door, Tigers rout Chiefs for key road win in Game 3 of the 2025 WHL Championship Series

Spokane, Wash.- The claws are out and the net is full.

Six different Tigers found the back of the net as Medicine Hat routed the Spokane Chiefs 6-0 to take a 2-1 lead in the 2025 WHL Championship Series presented by Nutrien.

Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Harrison Meneghin made 28 saves for his league-leading third shutout of the postseason.

“It’s a lot of lot easier to be good after you lose a game,” Head Coach Willie Desjardins said of his group’s bounceback effort. “We know they’re a great hockey team. They’re going to be super excited here and and they’re going to come out hard. So I don’t think there’s any chance we should get too high because there’s a lot of hockey left.”

This marks the first time in the 2025 WHL Playoffs and the second time in the 2024-25 season that the Chiefs have been held without a goal.

“There’s little details there that are lacking,” Chiefs Captain and Seattle Kraken prospect Berkly Catton said. “I think our line just flat out wasn’t good enough tonight. Like Brad (Lauer) said, though, we get to come back tomorrow. That’s the beauty of playoff hockey, and that’s what we’re looking at, learning from tonight, but also flushing it and coming all ready to play tomorrow.”

For a third straight game, the Eastern Conference Champions lit the lamp first, with Captain Oasiz Wiesblatt twisting and turning to escape his check behind the Chiefs’ net and firing a centering pass to Cayden Lindstrom for his second consecutive game-opening goal.

Lindstrom, a Columbus Blue Jackets prospect, helped double the lead late in the frame as he whipped the puck off the pads of netminder Dawson Cowan to create a long rebound for Florida Panthers prospect Hunter St. Martin.

“I’m feeling great,” Lindstrom said postgame. The 19-year-old has two goals and two assists in his first two games after being sidelined for more than a year with an injury. “Feels good to help my team, it’s all I’ve been wanting to do all year, is just coming in to help.”

St. Martin nearly made it 3-0 with just over a minute to play as he stole a puck from a Chiefs defender and muscled his way to the Spokane net for a backhanded chance on Cowan as the Tigers outshot their opponents 15-5 in the opening frame.

Medicine Hat extended the lead for real just 93 seconds into the second period as Utah Hockey Club prospect Veeti Vaisenen threaded his way over the blue line and around the Chiefs’ net for a wraparound attempt, with towering centreman Kadon McCann shovelling home a loose puck for his second career playoff goal.

Two-time WHL Rookie of the Week Liam Ruck inched the game towards blowout territory as he one-timed a Marcus Pachecho feed into a yawning cage.

Rookie netminder Carter Esler came in to relieve Cowan at the beginning of the third period as Lauer began to look ahead to Game 4.

Calgary Flames prospect Andrew Basha kept the gas pedal down in the home stretch as he collected a pass from St. Martin and cut in from the right faceoff dot to rip the puck high on Esler to make it a 5-0 game.

2025 NHL Draft-eligible defenceman Bryce Pickford continued his stupendous goal-scoring streak to a sixth game as he snapped the puck top shelf to cap off the scoring for the evening.

Pickford leads all blueliners in playoff scoring with 10 goals and 10 assists for 20 points in 16 games.

Medicine Hat outshot Spokane 45-28 in the win, despite a depleted lineup.

“We have had a lot of adversity this year,” Desjardins added. “We had a lot of guys out of the lineup, and that was one of our strengths, that other people step up at different times. This isn’t the first time we’ve had adversity. We’re going to have adversity moving forward as well. So it was good to see and and I do think the regular season did prepare us a little bit to handle that.”

Tigers star forward Gavin McKenna was a late scratch due to an undisclosed injury.

Neither team has much time to dwell on Tuesday’s result, with Game 4 set for Wednesday, May 14, at 7:00 p.m. PST.

Fans in Canada can tune in on TSN, while viewers outside of Canada can stream the action on Victory+.