SWIFT CURRENT -- The Medicine Hat Tigers are a win away from advancing to the second round of the Western Hockey League playoffs after taking an overtime win in Swift Current on Wednesday night.
Hunter St. Martin scored at the 2:08 mark of extra time to give the Tigers a 5-4 victory in Game 4 and a three-games-to-one lead in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarter-final series.
It looked early on that overtime would be the least possible thing to happen, as Carlin Dezainde and Clarke Caswell scored at 1:34 and 6:46 respectively in the first period to give Swift Current an early 2-0 lead.
Ryder Ritchie got one back for the Tigers before the period was out, though, and Gavin McKenna went to work from there. The exceptional status standout scored his second of the series with 3:59 gone in the second period and then added his third only 35 seconds later to give Medicine Hat a 3-2 lead.
McKenna now has three goals and 14 points in the first four games of the series.
There things would remain until the game’s final minutes, when the Broncos’ Luke Mistelbacher scored with 1:57 remaining and goaltender Reid Dyck pulled for the extra attacker, sending the contest to overtime.
There, Veeti Vaisanen would spring St. Martin and McKenna on a two-on-none not long after the puck dropped, and St. Martin would keep before beating Dyck with a backhand top shelf to give Medicine Hat the series stranglehold.
Harrison Meneghin finished with 25 saves for the Tigers, while Dyck was far busier and turned aside 44 shots.
McKenna and Ritchie each finished with three points for Medicine Hat.
The Tigers can now finish off the series on home ice on Friday night, with puck drop at 7 p.m.
