Mathew Ward scored a hat-trick outscoring the Medicine Hat Tigers by himself in a 7-2 Swift Current Broncos win Friday, February 18th, at the Innovation Credit Union i-plex. He also added an assist to give him four points on the night.
Connor Hvidston scored his eighth of the season just 1:13 into the game to give the Broncos an extremely early 1-0 lead.
Early bird gets the worm!🪱🚨
Connor Hvidston strikes 1:13 into the first period for the @SCBroncos! pic.twitter.com/RKIdLlFRhg
— The WHL (@TheWHL) February 19, 2022
Ward started to get to work at 11:20 of the first period when he notched his 16th of the season just five seconds into a powerplay. He received a cross-ice pass in the Tiger zone and buried a shot past the sprawled-out Medicine Hat goaltender.
Now that was easy!🚨
Mathew Ward and the @SCBroncos needed just five seconds to score on the power play!#NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/b7jdB2TYtC
— The WHL (@TheWHL) February 19, 2022
Teague Patton got the Tigers on the board with just under five minutes left in the first period, scoring his 10th goal of the campaign to make the score 2-1 Broncos, heading to the first intermission.
Raphael Pelletier added to the Broncos lead just past the halfway point of the second period with a powerplay marker of his own, his 13th of the season, giving the Broncos a not-so-comfortable 3-1 lead. Bogdans Hodass scored with 23 seconds left in the second period to pull the Tigers back to within a single marker, scoring his fourth of the campaign.
The Broncos really took over in the third period, scoring four times in just under 12 minutes to put the game away. Hvidston scored his second of the game (ninth) just over five minutes into the final session. Ward then made it 5-2 with his second of the game at 9:24 with his 17th of the season.
Mathew Ward caps the night off in style as he notches his first career WHL hat trick!🎩🎩🎩@SCBroncos | #NHLDraft pic.twitter.com/nOszfjdKrG
— The WHL (@TheWHL) February 19, 2022
Just under six minutes later Ward completed his first career hat-trick on a beauty 2-on-1 break with Pelletier. Ward made no doubt, burying his 18th of the season and completing his first career three-goal game in the DUB making it 6-2 for the Broncos.
Karson King rounded out the scoring with 3:15 left scoring his second career goal giving the Broncos a 7-2 win.
Notes:
Shots: Swift Current 29, Medicine Hat 24
Powerplays: Swift Current 2-for-4, Medicine Hat 0-for-2
Goalies: Reid Dyck stopped 22 of 24 for win number four on the season, Garin Bjorklund also stopped 22 but allowed seven in the Tigers loss.
Attendance: 1,435.
The boxscore.
