Tigers blank listless Wheat Kings

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This article was published 02/03/2025 (201 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Medicine Hat Tigers did everything to the Brandon Wheat Kings but steal their lunch money and give them a wedgie in a 5-0 victory at Westoba Place on Saturday.

Oasiz Wiesblatt, Mathew Ward, Ryder Ritchie, Liam Ruck and Marcus Pacheco scored and Harrison Meneghin made 26 saves for Medicine Hat (40-17-3-1) as they simply outworked and out chanced Brandon (32-19-4-3), which was playing its third game in four days against Central Division opponents.

Brandon head coach and general manager Marty Murray said it wasn’t pretty.

“It was two teams kind of in similar situations playing with 10 forwards and six D, and they travelled last night so you have to give credit to them,” Murray said. “They outworked us and were first to pucks and they wanted it more. There are a number of goals where they just had second and third efforts on pucks and they ended up in the back of the net. We didn’t get it done.

“We were perimeter and we were soft and that’s the result you get.”

On Friday, the Wheat Kings beat the Lethbridge Hurricanes 4-3 in a shootout, while the Tigers blanked the Regina Pats 2-0.

Brandon went to the power play 45 seconds into the game, but failed to even register a shot in what was a fairly tepid start to the game for both clubs.

“That probably kicked off the night,” Murray said. “We had a power play real early and didn’t get anything done, and that was kind of the theme all night. Your power play has to work to get anything done and our execution was very poor. We didn’t accomplish anything.

“It was one of those nights we had enough power-play time and even had a chance to crawl back into the game but our execution was poor and we probably got what we deserved.”

The Tigers struck first 10 minutes three seconds into the first period off the rush. Wiesblatt sent a close shot at Brandon goalie Carson Bjarnason and then made contact with him — skate on pad — as the puck trickled through the big goalie.

It went to a video review but there was little doubt the puck was in and the contact was minimal, so it was properly judged to be a goal.

Near the end of the period, Jaxon Jacobson took a double minor for high sticking, sending the Tigers to an extended power play. Fortunately for the hosts, Hunter St. Martin took a penalty a minute later, putting the teams at four-on-four for two full minutes and negating much of the remaining man advantage.

Brandon had its best chance late in the period when Brady Turko hit a post and they had their first extended flurry of action in the Medicine Hat zone.

The wheels fell off early in the second period. Just 94 seconds in, Ward picked up the puck on the boards, skated high into the middle near the blue-line, whirled and fired a shot that went through traffic and by Bjarnason to make it 2-0.

Brandon was fortunate on a subsequent two-on-one that the puck popped into the air and landed on top of the net behind Bjarnason, but 94 seconds after the Ward goal, the Tigers capitalized on a Brandon turnover at their own blue-line when Ritchie fired a laser inside the far post to make it 3-0.

“Puck management is so big, especially with the (shortage of) bodies,” Murray said. “Any time you turn it over when you have 30 or 40 per cent left in your gas tank, you’re asking for trouble and we did that on a number of occasions tonight, and they can execute and make plays.”

If there was any hope for Brandon, it was effectively extinguished 9:58 into the period when Brandon lost the puck in its zone, and Liam Ruck jumped on the rebound of a shot by Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll to make it 4-0.

Ethan Eskit took over in net for Brandon to start the third period.

At the other end, Meneghin made his best save of the night when he did the splits to deny defenceman Adam Belusko in close.

The hosts had a four-on-three man advantage for 93 seconds midway through the period and moved the puck around. While they hit a crossbar at one point, they didn’t create much.

The Tigers added a late goal with 3:43 remaining when Pacheco sailed a shot over Eskit’s shoulder as the Tigers forward, who was playing defence due to injuries, found the back of the net from the blue-line.

Veteran forward Nick Johnson said it was a disappointing effort from the Wheat Kings.

“I don’t think there was a lot of compete tonight out of anyone,” Johnson said. “I’m at a loss for words a little bit. It doesn’t matter how many bodies we’re down or who’s sick or who’s out or who’s in or how many forwards we have, it’s just unacceptable at the end of the day.

“We need to take pride in each game and how we play. Who knows, we might play those guys later on in the playoffs and we need to win our matchups and show we can play. We can’t take games off like that.”

Bjarnason made 20 saves for the Wheat Kings through two periods, with Eskit turning aside seven shots in the final frame.

Brandon went 0-for-4 on the power play, with Medicine Hat unsuccessful in three chances.

Medicine Hat head coach Willie Desjardins liked his team’s effort.

“I thought we had a good game,” Desjardins said. “Brandon has been playing so well and they had chances too. We capitalized on ours tonight and they didn’t get theirs. Our penalty kill was good too, which helped us.”

ICINGS: The announced crowd was 3,264 … Brandon skated without injured forwards Roger McQueen, Carter Klippenstein, Ben Binder Nord and Easton Odut, plus D Merrek Arpin … Medicine Hat played without young star Gavin McKenna, who was serving the second game of a three-game suspension for slashing Edmonton Oil Kings defenceman Josh Mori. They were also without injured D Jonas Woo, D Bryce Pickford, F Andrew Basha and F Cayden Lindstrom … Belusko, Caleb Hadland, Brady Turko and Marcus Nguyen led the Wheat Kings with three shots each on net … The game took two hours, 16 minutes to play … In the faceoff circle, Medicine Hat won 26-23 … The Wheat Kings head out on a four-game Alberta road trip next week for games against the Red Deer Rebels on Tuesday, the Edmonton Oil Kings on Wednesday, Lethbridge on Friday and the Calgary Hitmen on Sunday.

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @PerryBergson

 

Tigers 5, Wheat Kings 0
First Period
1. Medicine Hat, Wiesblatt 30 (M. Ruck, Ritchie) 10:03.
Penalties — Van Mulligan MH (interference) 0:45, Jacobson Bdn (high sticking, double minor) 14:45, St. Martin MH (hooking) 16:11,
Second Period
2. Medicine Hat, Ward 16 (Moss, Neutens) 1:34.
3. Medicine Hat, Ritchie 25 (Cunningham) 3:08.
4. Medicine Hat, L. Ruck 19 (Gordon-Carroll, Cunningham) 9:58.
Penalties — Van Mulligen MH (holding) 16:25.
Third Period
5. Medicine Hat, Pacheco 13 (M. Ruck) 16:17.
Penalties — Johnson Bdn (slashing) 9:36, Van Mulligen Bdn (cross checking) 9:36, Vaisanen (cross checking) 10:04, Gordon-Carroll MH (boarding) 12:58. Shipley Bdn (interference) 18:11, Nguyen Bdn (roughing) 18:11, Moss MH (roughing) 18:11, Michels Bdn (roughing) 20:00.
Shots on goal by
Brandon     5     11     10     —     26
Medicine Hat     12     12     8     —     32
Goal (shots-saves) — Medicine Hat: Meneghin (26-26) (W, 18-10-1-1). Brandon: Bjarnason (24-20) (L, 17-13-3-0), Eskit (20:00, third period) (8-7).
Power plays (goals-chances) — Brandon: 0-4; Medicine Hat: 0-3.
Referees — Bob Millette, Tarrington Wyonzek.
Linesmen — Josh Blondeau, Logan Young.
Attendance — 3,264 in Brandon.