Medicine Hat News
The Medicine Hat Tigers scored three times in the third period to mount a riveting comeback attempt on Friday night at the Art Hauser Centre, but their efforts fell short in a 5-3 loss.
Tyler Preziuso cut into a 3-0 deficit halfway through the final frame then Ryan Chyzowski and Henrik Rybinski added two more, but the Prince Albert Raiders escaped to victory on Sean Montgomery’s shorthanded game-winner.
“We’ve got to find a way to put 60 minutes together,” said winger Ryan Jevne, whose Tigers slipped to 1-3-0-0 with their third straight loss. “We’ve had a couple stretches in the past couple games where we’ve played well but we haven’t done it consistently enough to get wins.”
Max Martin put the Raiders in front just past the halfway point of the first period when he beat Tigers goaltender Jordan Hollett with a wrist shot through traffic from the point on the power play.
Medicine Hat’s struggles continued six minutes later when Elijah Brown turned the puck over at his own blue line and quickly paid for his mistake. Raiders winger Ozzy Weisblatt converted the error into a 2-0 lead after taking a feed from Cole Fonstad and ripping it past Hollett for his first of the year.
The Tigers came out with a better effort in the second — matching Prince Albert’s 14 shots in the frame after being outshot 15-6 in the first — but Raiders goaltender Ian Scott had an answer for every one. Fonstad added to Prince Albert’s lead midway through the middle frame by tapping in a loose puck at the end of a goalmouth scramble to leave Medicine Hat staring down a three-goal deficit after 40 minutes.
The Raiders continued to pressure for more early in the third, but Hollett managed to keep them at bay —allowing Preziuso to end Scott’s shutout bid with just over nine minutes left in the third. The 19-year-old Victoria product cut in as Jevne put the puck on goal, then deposited the rebound past Scott for his second of the year.
Chyzowski kept the momentum rolling five minutes later when he beat Scott from the low circle just after a penalty to Raiders centre Kody McDonald expired to cut the gap to one.
The Tigers looked poised to draw even as Brayden Pachal was sent to the box for kneeing, but Montgomery capitalized on a shorthanded breakaway to re-establish Prince Albert’s two-goal lead.
Rybinski kept things interesting by cashing in on the same power play just over a minute later, but the comeback was snuffed out on a late empty-netter by Justin Nachbaur.
While Medicine Hat’s power play went 1-for-6 after entering the contest at 3-for-16, Tigers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston says they made some changes to the special teams unit in the third period, and it seemed to have a positive impact.
“We made some adjustments with personnel and it seemed to spark things a little bit,” said Clouston. “We had real good execution and a little more intensity, unfortunately we gave up the one shorthanded goal but the power play was a big part of the third period and getting the game to a point where we had a chance.”
Clouston added Hollett — who stopped 35 pucks in the loss — kept the Tigers within striking distance of a victory, something he’s done in all four of his appearances this season.
“He’s ready to go,” Clouston said of Hollett. “He’s playing with some confidence and giving us an opportunity to compete.”
Scott backed Prince Albert to a 3-0-0-0 start with a 26-save performance.
The Tigers will look to close out their three-game road trip with a victory Saturday in Saskatoon against the Blades at 7 p.m.
“Every single game (of the road trip) we’re playing against someone whose record is undefeated so we knew we would have to bring our best coming in,” said Jevne. “The first two haven’t gone our way but luckily we have one more and we can finish the road trip off strong.”
