Super late goal sinks Tigers

By Ryan McCracken on January 18, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

The Medicine Hat Tigers were 4.4 seconds away from their third consecutive trip to overtime, but Brett Davis had other plans.

The 18-year-old Kootenay Ice winger beat Tigers goaltender Jordan Hollett through the five-hole to complete the comeback and give Kootenay a 4-3 victory with the final shot of the game.

“I knew it was late in the game and I got a pass there from (Keenan) Taphorn, so I just threw it on net and I was lucky enough that it went in,” said Davis. “I thought we had a little bit of a slow start, maybe had to get the bus legs out, but we had a good push in the second and just battled through to get a good road win.”

Tigers head coach Shaun Clouston says his team lacked the drive they showcased on their 2-1-1-0 East Division road trip last week, and they ultimately paid the price for it.

“We didn’t have the same jump and energy, togetherness and aggressiveness as we did on the road trip. It was disappointing,” said Clouston. “We could have ended up with a point or two, but it’s not just about that. It’s about playing at the top of your game and pushing ourselves to be good every shift.”

While the Ice jumped to an early lead when Martin Bodak beat Hollett on the power play — with newly acquired Tiger Bryan Lockner in the box for slashing — Medicine Hat answered back in bunches.

Mark Rassell put his team on the board just over a minute later by redirecting a slap pass from David Quenneville past Ice netminder and former Tiger Duncan McGovern for his 38th of the season.

James Hamblin kept the offence rolling just over two minutes after Rassell’s marker, beating McGovern with a swift backhand deke to take over a 2-1 lead with his 14th goal of the season.

But the Tigers weren’t done there.

Defenceman Dylan MacPherson put his speed on display by jumping in on the rush near the end of a shift and setting up Ryan Chyzowski for a snipe to the far corner with seven minutes left in the first.

“We had a hot start, but we talked about it before the game, coming home from a tough road trip and thinking it’s going to be easy. And it wasn’t,” said Rassell. “I think we came home and we thought it was going to be easy. We got an early lead and got our foot off the gas, stopped working and doing what made us successful. It’s really disappointing.”

The Ice created a golden opportunity to put a stop to the bleeding when Colton Veloso was hooked on a breakaway late in the opening frame. While the 200-game WHL veteran was unable to beat Hollett on the ensuing penalty shot, he and the Ice started their road back in the second.

Medicine Hat held Kootenay to six shots in the first period and just three for the opening 15 minutes of the second, but Bodak broke through for his second of the night on a late goalmouth scramble to leave the Ice within striking distance after 40 minutes.

Kootenay then managed to take over the momentum in the final frame and Michael King knotted things up after crashing the net and deflecting a Peyton Krebs pass off his leg and into the net, then Davis stole away the game in the dying moments to silence the crowd of 2,817.

“We didn’t execute our game plan and they capitalized,” said Hamblin. “We turned too many pucks over in the neutral zone and they’ve got fast forwards. They came back at us and we didn’t reply to that.”

McGovern rebounded from a shaky start to lock up the victory on 34 stops — along with an assist on Bodak’s opener — to push Kootenay to 20-22-3-0. Hollett took the 19-save loss, dropping Medicine Hat to 24-18-4-0.

“Duncan was great. He came up with some huge saves, especially in the third,” said Davis. “He’s been great for us lately and hopefully he can keep it going.”

The Tigers return to the Canalta Centre Saturday to host the Prince Albert Raiders (16-19-6-2) at 7:30 p.m.

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