Whatever it takes
Garin Bjorklund sprawls out to make one of his 30 saves during Friday night’s game against the Calgary Hitmen at Co-op Place. Solid netminding kept the Hitmen at bay until a pair of Svejkovsky goals in the third sealed a 4-1 Tigers win.
Backed by an impressive performance in net from Garin Bjorklund, the Medicine Hat Tigers put together a fourth straight win with a 4-1 victory over the Calgary Hitmen on Friday night at Co-op Place.
Bjorklund stopped 30 of 31 shots in the game, including a heavy workload of 18 saves in the second period.
Ryan Chyzowski and Corson Hopwo each netted a goal in the first period with impressive wrist shots labelled for the top corner on Hitmen netminder Brayden Peters’ glove side.
The Tabbies captain opened the scoring nine minutes into the game. Defenceman Daniel Baker sent a pass to Chyzowski in transition where the captain skated into the offensive zone and ripped a shot to the back of the net — Bjorklund also picked up an assist on the play.
With under a minute left in the opening frame, Baker kept a puck inside the blueline and found Hopwo open in the slot. Hopwo made no mistake and his eighth goal of the season found twine to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.
Calgary came out of the gate hot in the second and outshot Medicine Hat 19-8. However, Bjorklund was tracking the puck well, sprawling out to make key saves, and made a cross-ice save on a one-time shot from Hitmen centre Blake Allan.
Bjorklund stopped 18 shots in the period, but Calgary was rewarded for their efforts at the 14:23 mark. Winger Josh Prokop received a pass from Sean Tschigerl and pushed the puck to the back of the Tigers net.
Medicine Hat’s power play cashed in early in the third period to extend their lead to two. Lukas Svejkovsky possessed the puck behind the net, wrapped around and jammed it behind the goal line just before Peters could get his pad there. Oren Shtrom and Chyzowski picked up assists on the power play tally.
Svejkovsky capitalized on another man advantage later in the period when Orca Wiesblatt was sent to the bin for the Hitmen. Svejkovsky sniped a shot to the top corner of the net with Brett Kemp and Cole Clayton involved with assists on the play.
With the win, Medicine Hat improves to 8-3-0-0 and Calgary drops to 5-6-1-0 on the season.
The Tigers and Hitmen will play the second of their threegame weekend series on Saturday at the Seven Chiefs Sportsplex in Calgary, with puck drop scheduled for 7 p.m.
Tigers add Dezainde
Carlin Dezainde made his Western Hockey League debut Friday night after signing with the team earlier that morning.
The 16-year-old had nine points in five games with the Edge School U18 Prep team this season before the Canadian Sport School Hockey League was shut down due to COVID-19.
“Carlin is a fast forward with good offensive instincts and vision,” said Bobby Fox, director of player personnel, in a release on the team’s website. “He plays hard and can buzz, making defencemen’s lives miserable.”
Dezainde played with the Edge School Elite 15’s in the CSSHL during the 2019-20 season where he netted 11 goals and tallied 17 assists for 28 points in 36 games.
Dezainde was penciled in to play alongside Tigers captain Ryan Chyzowski and Lukas Svejkovsky for Friday’s game against the Calgary Hitmen.