Ice tame Tigers in Game One

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This article was published 31/03/2023 (980 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Winnipeg Ice checked the first of 16 boxes on their hopeful road to Western Hockey League supremacy on Friday.

The top-seeded Ice prevailed in a gritty 5-3 decision over the eighth-seed Medicine Hat Tigers at Wayne Fleming Arena in Game 1 of the first round of the WHL playoffs.

Matthew Savoie led the way with a hat trick for the hosts. Zack Ostapchuk and Evan Friesen also found the back of the net while goaltender Daniel Hauser claimed the victory on the strength of a 33-save performance.

Andrew Basha scored twice for the Tigers on a night they outshot Winnipeg 36-35.

“It was a good start for our group,” said Savoie, who added an assist in the game. “We wanted to come in and build some momentum and I thought we did a good job of that.”

Despite the Ice owning a 3-1 series advantage during the regular season, the rugged Tigers have given the Ice fits at many points. While the Tigers were never completely out of this one, Winnipeg controlled the series opener from the outset.

The Ice were without star forward Zach Benson for an eighth straight game. Benson, a projected top-10 pick in this summer’s NHL draft, hasn’t played since sustaining an upper-body injury on March 10 and remains week-to-week. His absence didn’t prove to affect the regular season champs, especially on special teams, which proved to be the difference in this one.

The Ice, which had just the eighth-best power play in the league during the regular season (operating at a 23.8 per cent clip), went 3-for-6 on the night with the man advantage.

Ostaphchuk, the highly-coveted gem who found his way to Winnipeg at the trade deadline, got the hosts on the board in a hurry via the power play. A rebound from a Connor McClennon shot found the stick of power forward, who wired the puck past Tigers’ goaltender Beckett Langkow to start the playoffs with a bang.

“It was huge for our group. Such a momentum builder. He’s been a big part of our goal and it was a really timely goal by him,” Savoie said.

“The playoffs, it’s the biggest time of the year and what he did last year, and what he’s been able to do this year in just Game 1, he’s a playoff guy and that’s the reason we got him. He’s a great guy off the ice, too, so the boys are really rooting for him to have success and it attributes to all our success. When he’s going, we’re all going. We got a lot of guys that can drive the bus and he’s one of them.”

Midway through the frame, the Ice pounced again, this time off the stick of Savoie, who took a crisp cross-ice feed from defenceman Ben Zloty and made no mistake potting the puck to double the host’s lead. Zloty, who led all WHL defencemen in points (81) during the regular season, stayed hot with four assists on the night.

Savoie swelled the lead to three goals early in the final act on the power play, and while the Tigers refused to go away, applying a bevy of pressure and flurry of shots late in the third period, the Ice stood tall to ride out their cushion.

“Continuing to rely on our depth,” Savoie said of the key for as long as the team is without Benson. “We got four lines that can produce, six defencemen that are really steady and two goalies. So, from top to bottom, we’re really steady and we’re just looking to keep contributing from every guy.”

The Ice and Tigers are back at it tonight for Game 2, 6 p.m. puck drop at Wayne Fleming Arena.

jfreysam@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jfreysam