High River Flyers 3, Medicine Hat Cubs 5 — Final
The Medicine Hat Cubs opened their regular-season home schedule with a 5-3 win over the High River Flyers on Friday night at Kinplex Arena, getting a two-goal night from Brodie Heimbecker and out-shooting the Flyers 49-23.
Colby Gulliver opened the scoring just 59 seconds into the game, assisted by Brennan Finke, before High River’s Beck O’Neill tied it at 13:00 to make it 1-1 after the first. Medicine Hat took the lead for good in the second on goals from Randen Collier (5:27) and Heimbecker (8:19), making it 3-1 through forty minutes.
The third period saw both teams trade chances. Cole Fisher’s goal at 1:42 — tagged as the game-winner — pushed the lead to 4-1, but High River answered with two of its own from Emerett Norleen (5:19) and Jake Brennan (8:49) to cut the deficit to 4-3. Heimbecker’s second of the night at 16:29 restored a two-goal cushion and sealed the 5-3 final.
Kayden Van Ham made 20 saves on 23 shots for the win in Medicine Hat’s net; High River’s Erich Baxter stopped 44 of 49 in the loss. Medicine Hat forward Brennan Finke and High River captain Colby Gulliver each drew heavy penalty minutes over the course of the night — Gulliver picked up a 10-minute misconduct late in the third.