Martin Jones had mastery over the Medicine Hat Tigers in this one.
Just 57 second into the third period of Thursday’s Western Hockey League tilt at The Arena, Calgary Hitmen left-winger Tyler Fiddler scored to give his club a 2-1 edge over the host Tigers. From there, Jones, who is the Hitmen’s stellar netminder and a member of Canada’s last world junior team, slammed the door.
Positioning his 6-foot-4, 193 pound frame well, Jones was in total control turning away 15 shots in the final frame as his club skated away with a 4-1 win. Right-winger Tyler Shattock tallied on a power play with 1:25 to play, while Cody Sylvester scored into an empty net to round out the scoring for the visitors.
In total, Jones made 33 saves in goal for his club, and Tigers captain Wacey Hamilton gave the Calgary netminder major props for his play.
“He is real tough,” said Hamilton. “There was a time in the third period when I came down the wing there, you think you are picking a corner.
“He is so big and square to the shooter that he covers a lot of net. It just hits him in the chest. His rebound control was so good. There were no rebounds for linemates to pick up.
“If we want to solve him more than once, we have to get a little more traffic in front of him and get him on some greasy goals.”
The victory was the third in a row for the Hitmen, as they improved to 35-16-1-1. The Tigers fell to 32-17-3-5.
Standings wise, the Hitmen, Tigers and Kootenay Ice (34-16-2-2) are all tied for first in the WHL’s Central Division with 72 points. The Ice have three games in hand on the Tigers, while Calgary has four games in hand on the Hat.
The Hitmen knew their goalie was a big reason for the win.
“He (Jones) is a calming influence on the team,” said Hitmen head coach Mike Williamson. “He never gets too rattled.
“He comes up with big saves when he needs to, but he is so under control that it is tough to catch him out of position.”
The Hitmen went up 1-0 at the 2:40 mark of the second. Calgary forward Kris Foucault wired a set-up pass from linemate Cody Beach to the top right corner of the Hat goal. Tyler Bunz did turn away 24 of 27 shots in the Hat net.
The Tigers tied the game 1-1 just before the midway point of the second. Coming in on a rush into the Calgary zone, Cameron banged home the rebound from a shot taken by Hamilton for the equalizer.
Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins felt special teams made a big difference in the game. His club failed to score in six power-play opportunities, while Calgary was 1-for-5 with the man advantage. The hidden statistic there was that Hitmen’s winning goal early in the third came four seconds after one of their power plays ended, and they were still applying pressure in the Hat zone.
“Our specialty teams just haven’t been as good lately,” said Desjardins. “Their power plays were better than ours.”