Medicine Hat 7 Spokane 4
Many were wondering whether the Medicine Hat Tigers (8-4) would be able to replace all that scoring that left them this year. After Mason Shaw went down with a long term injury and Zach Fischer was traded to the Spokane Chiefs (8-6-0-1), they were left without the duties of their top-five scorers from a season ago. Add Max Gerlach, who has not played for over two weeks and they walked into Wednesday night’s contest with the visiting Chiefs, absent their top-six providers from 2016-17. 
It has taken a month, but head coach Shaun Clouston has found a way to make up that offense and get this team to start rivaling the high-scoring squad he had last year.
Counting their seven-goal output Wednesday, the Tigers have scored 25 goals in their last four games. Only one of which was a loss.
Their depth in scoring was on display against Fischer and the Chiefs as 11 different players notched at least a point, led by Ryan Chyzowski’s one goals and two assists. 16-year-old rookie Josh Williams also added two goals.
Williams kicked things off with 4:55 left in the first. He got defenseman Ty Smith turned around and found some space at the back post, while Gary Haden hit him with a nice pass on the rush.
Ryley Woods absolutely sniped a shot past Medicine Hat goalie Jordan Hollett in the second period to tie the game.
That tie would not last four minutes as David Quenneville answered back with his fifth of the year.
That 2-1 Med Hat lead set the table for a pair of dueling goals by the players who were dealt for each other last week. First Fischer tied the game at two by winning the puck out of the corner and roofing a shot past Hollett. Then, Hayden Ostir answered for the Tigers, skating in off the left face off dot and sneaking a shot through Spokane netminder Dawson Weatherill.
Tyler Preziuso then knocked Weatherill out of the game with his team’s fourth goal. Wetherill stopped 13 of 17 before getting the hook. Donovan Buskey came on in relief.
D-man Nolan Reid got the Chiefs back into the game with a power play marker with 4:47 left in the high-scoring middle frame.
The Tigers would then greet Buskey with another goal, the second from Williams, 4:49 into the third. They would tack on goals from Chyzowski and James Hamblin to run their lead to 7-3.
Spokane would get a later marker from Hudson Elynuik to make the score a more respectable 7-4 final. Elynuik had two assists to go along with his goal and has nine points in his last three games.
The Tigers were 2/5 on the power play while Spokane was 1/4.
Buskey made 14 stops on 17 shots in relief. Hollett got the win, turning away 36 of 40.
Spokane heads to Red Deer for a tilt Friday with the Rebels. That will be the last game of their four-game trip through Alberta. They are now 2-1 on the trip so far.
The Tigers will host the Moose Jaw Warriors Friday, in a battle of division leaders.
Prince Albert 4 Victoria 3
Before the 2016-17 season began, if you were to circle one Prince Albert Raiders (5-4-3-0) player most important to the team it would have been overage sniper Reid Gardiner. Unfortunately for P.A, he signed an AHL deal and did not return to the WHL until they were out of contention. They ended up dealing him to Kelowna.
If you were to ask that same question this year, the answer would have been Toronto Maple Leafs draft pick, netminder Ian Scott.
So Prince Albert had to feel a bit cursed when Scott went down with an injury in the very fist game of the season. They were able to ride some solid goaltending from Curtis Meger though and started out 3-4-3-0. That record was heavily influenced by a three-game skid that seemed to be in some part due to the heavy usage of Meger.
Saturday, Scott returned to the ice and backstopped his squad to a 4-3 OT win.
Wednesday night, he faced the highest-scoring team in the league in the visiting Victoria Royals (10-4-1-0) and earned his second straight win, stopping 20 of 23.
Scott was helped out by a defense that limited the potent Victoria attack to just six, third-period shots, while they scored three times and came back from a 2-1 deficit.
How potent the Royals are was on display on the first goal of the game 3:04 into the second. Dante Hannoun got hit with a breakout pass from Mitchell Prowse and dropped a slick feed right to Regan Nagy in the slot. The goal was Nagy’s 14th of the year.
One of Prince Albert’s own leading scorers answered back 50 seconds later. Import defenseman Sergei Sapego jumped into the play and flipped a pass cross-ice to a waiting Jordy Stallard at the face off dot. Stallard one-timed the puck past Victoria goalie Dean McNabb for his eighth of the year.
McNabb stopped 33 of 37, in just his third start this year.
An import on the side of the Royals, gave them a 2-1 lead going into the third. A wrist shot from the point by Jared Freadrich was deflected past Scott by Igor Martynov.
Stallard created the look that led to the tying goal, 3:34 into the third. He threw the puck towards the net and it would eventually be poked home by Cole Fonstad.
Then the Raiders took their first lead of the night with a short-handed goal from Devon Skoleski. The one-time Everett Silvertip, took advantage of some hard work by fellow penalty killer Brayden Pachal and raced the other way. He drove in before picking high glove on McNabb for his fourth goal of the season.
The lead only lasted 2:40 of game time. Matthew Phillips forced a turnover behind the P.A. net and found Tyler Soy crashing, tying the game at three.
Just 56 seconds later, the Raiders scored the winner as defenseman Max Martin beat McNabb through a screen.
The Raiders will look to keep their win streak going against the Brandon Wheat Kings Friday, who have already beaten them twice in two tries this year.
Victoria heads back home after going 3-4 on their seven-game road trip. They will take on the Vancouver Giants on Saturday.
Lethbridge 2 Regina 0
Stuart Skinner last had a shutout on February 4th. While he has played well since then, he has just not quite put that goose egg on the opponent’s score sheet. Wednesday night he did just that, stopping all 36 shots the Regina Pats (8-6-1-0) threw at him and leading his Lethbridge Hurricanes (6-5) to a 2-0 win. 
Jordy Bellerive assisted on both markers as the ‘Canes took revenge on the team that ended their season last year.
Dylan Cozens got the first marker of the game on the power play with only 3:26 left in the second. Bellerive wired a pass cross-ice to Zane Franklin and he found a driving Cozens. The 2001-born forward already has seven goals this year.
Ryan Vandervlis then added some insurance with 7:47 left in regulation. He beat Tyler Brown on the glove side, off a feed from Bellerive.
Brown was solid at his end of the ice, turning away 22 of 24 in the loss.
Both teams only had one power play chance and neither scored on them.
Lethbridge next plays Friday at home against Calgary, while Regina heads to Red Deer for a tile Saturday.
