Medicine Hat looks to book ticket to Memorial Cup against Spokane in WHL Final

The Medicine Hat Tigers look to book their ticket the Memorial Cup with a win in Game 5 against the Spokane Chiefs at the Western Hockey League Championship Series on Friday night.

Medicine Hat took a 3-1 series stranglehold over Spokane with a 5-2 win in Game 4 despite missing phenom and leading scoring Gavin McKenna and star forward Cayden Lindstrom.

The Tigers are a win away from winning their sixth Ed Chynoweth Cup, which would equal the Kamloops Blazers for the most in WHL history. They last won the championship in 2007 when they defeated the Vancouver Giants in seven games.

Watch Medicine Hat battle Spokane in Game 5 of the WHL Final LIVE Friday at 10 p.m. ET/7 p.m. PT on TSN1/5, TSN.ca, and the TSN App.

Scoring from the blueline and special teams were the key factor in Medicine Hat's Game 4 victory with Bryce Pickford scoring a pair of goals and Nashville Predators prospect Tanner Molendyk adding three assists.

With the game tied 1-1 entering the second period, Pickford scored his first of the game with defenceman Saige Weinstein in the penalty box for interference.

Spokane added to their penalty woes later in the period when was sent off for slashing followed by defenceman Nathan Mayes being called for a five-minute major for interference, giving the Tigers a two-man advantage for 33 seconds.

Pickford took full advantage with his second power-play goal of the period to give Medicine Hat a two-goal lead.

Forward Liam Ruck then scored a third power-play goal less than two minutes later to give the Tigers a commanding 4-1 lead heading into the third period.

"The power play was the difference in the second period where we capitalized." Tigers head coach Willie Desjardins said after the game. "Pickford was leading the league in goals by defencemen in the first half of the season and then he got hurt. It's not surprising, he's got a great shot and sees the ice well."

Pickford was acquired from the Seattle Thunderbirds last off-season as part of their effort to re-construct their blueline for this season. The 6-foot defenceman had 20 goals and 47 points in the regular season and is second in scoring by defencemen in the playoffs with 12 goals and 23 points behind Portland Winterhawks blueliner Tyson Jugnauth.

The 19-year-old rearguard has now scored in seven straight games, which is a WHL record for defenceman. He is eligible the 2025 NHL Draft in Los Angeles.

"I'm not really looking at [the draft]," Pickford told TSN after the game. "I just want to look at the next game and I'll worry about that later."

Molendyk was the Tigers key acquisition at the CHL trade deadline, binging him and forward Misha Volotovskii into the fold from the Saskatoon Blades in exchange for forward Hayden Harsanyi, defenceman Jack Kachkowski, and five draft picks.

The 6-foot left-shot defenceman was a key member of the Blades last season, who finished with the WHL's best record, putting up 10 goals and 56 points in 50 games.

Molendyk's strong play continued into this season, recording nine goals and 47 points in 49 games split between the Blades and Tigers and was a key member of Team Canada's World Junior squad that finished fifth earlier this year.

"When you're Desjardins, you just look at Molendyk and you know you have a leader back there and everyone else just has to fall into their role," TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button said postgame. "He's a great skater who has a sense of the game, sense of calm and a real burning fire when it comes to determination."

Minnesota Wild prospect Ryder Ritchie and Florida Panthers draft pick Hunter St. Martin also scored for Medicine Hat while Harrison Meneghin stopped 28 of 30 shots to push Spokane to the brink.

Forwards Shea Van Olm and Assanali Sarkenov recorded the goals for the Chiefs while goaltender Dawson Cowan did everything he could to keep his team in the game despite allowing five goals on 34 shots.

Chiefs head coach Brad Lauer recognizes that being down 3-1 is not an ideal position to be in, but he believes that his team can get out of this hole and cites this WHL playoff as proof that the season isn't over yet.

"There are a lot of teams that you can look at that have come back from a 3-1 deficit," said Lauer. "You can use our league as an example when the Edmonton Oil Kings had a 3-1 against the Prince Albert Raiders in the first round and Prince Albert came back to win in seven.

"We've done it before all year. We've won three games in a row before and that's what we have to do now. Yes, we're down but we're not out just yet. Our focus has to be that we got to regroup and win on Friday to get the series back to Medicine Hat."

If Spokane wins Game 5, the WHL Championship Series will then shift back to Co-Op Place in Medicine Hat for Game 6 on Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT on TSN4, TSN.ca, and the TSN App.

The CHL on TSN continues on Saturday when the Moncton Wildcats make another attempt to lift the Gilles-Courteau Trophy with a win over the Rimouski Oceanic in Game 6 of the QMJHL Championship Series at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT on TSN1/3, TSN.ca, and the TSN App.