SEAN ROONEY
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All season the biggest question for the Medicine Hat Tigers has been where the secondary scoring would come from.
With Emerson Etem and Hunter Shinkaruk making up for nearly half the team’s offence, it’s a question that will continue to be asked. But on Tuesday at The Arena, there were plenty of players willing to be the answer.
While Etem scored his 49th, Alex Theriau had his first, Rhyse Dieno his second, Trevor Cox his eighth and Cole Grbavac his ninth as the Tigers beat the Calgary Hitmen 5-3.
“I’ve had a lot of glorious chances this year, haven’t been able to have any luck with it so it’s good to get the monkey off my back,” said Theriau, whose only other goal with the Tigers came on Feb. 23, 2011. “We had a couple guys that aren’t big goal-scorers score big goals tonight, and it was huge for the team.”
Theriau’s goal came on the power play late in the first period. Boston Leier found Theriau sneaking in from the blue line and the 19-year-old from Duncan, B.C. waited a split second before sniping a shot past Calgary goaltender Brandon Glover.
Though it wasn’t the game-winner — Grbavac got that off a slick turnover and feed created by Curtis Valk in the third — it was the sort of play that inspires confidence throughout the lineup.
“On the power play, you get a few chances here and there to create some offence and get pucks to the net and it was nice to see one go in,” said Tigers coach Shaun Clouston. “(Theriau) has had a little bit of an up and down season. He’s played really well at times, he’s played better lately.”
Theriau wasn’t even the only one in his billet household to get a rare goal. Dieno and Theriau are roommates, and the rookie’s power play marker came at a critical moment after Trevor Cheek had just scored a magnificent shorthanded goal for a 3-2 Hitmen lead in the second period.
In a game that set up as pitting the two hottest teams in the WHL against one another, it looked on the scoreboard as if Calgary held a significant edge. The shots on goal were 43-24 for the visitors, with most of that margin coming in an 18-4 second frame.
But Tyler Bunz turned aside 17 of those middle period shots, and even had some help late when Theriau broke up an Alex Gogolev scoring opportunity.
“There was no real high quality scoring chances but the ones they got they did bury on,” said Bunz afterwards. “The shots weren’t really indicative of the play, a lot of shots were coming outside the blue line. That’s all you can ask for is a team battling in front of you and eliminating second chances.”
Import rookies Gogolev and Victor Rask each scored their 22nd of the season in the first period, but were matched by Theriau and Cox.
In the third, Medicine Hat turned up the defensive pressure and was rewarded when Grbavac got the winner with 11:50 remaining.
Etem and Shinkaruk were held scoreless until the final few minutes, when Etem got a power play goal for his 49th of the season in just his 48th game. Calgary then pulled their goaltender for the last two minutes and Etem hit the post twice, then missed another empty net in search of his 50th.
His next chance at 50 in 50 will be Friday when the Tigers host Prince Albert.
For Tuesday, however, the real story was about the secondary scorers.