Tigers fall to Raiders

By Ryan McCracken on November 24, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

The Medicine Hat Tigers were unable to halt the unstoppable force known as the Prince Albert Raiders Friday night at the Canalta Centre.

After falling into a 4-0 hole, the Tigers rallied for three straight to give Prince Albert a good scare, but the Raiders bounced back with three of their own to lock up their 15th consecutive victory in a 7-3 barnburner.

“We didn’t quit. We had a lot of fight tonight,” said Tigers assistant coach Joe Frazer.

“You’ve got to give them a lot of credit. They’re a great team. We liked the push-back tonight, but there are a few mistakes that are correctable that we can’t let happen.”

To put things in perspective, the Raiders (22-1-0-0) now have more wins in a row than 18-of-22 Western Hockey League teams have on the season. Only the division-leading Red Deer Rebels, Vancouver Giants and Everett Silvertips also boast at least 15 victories.

“We’re on a roll,” said Raiders winger Brett Leason, who had four points in Friday’s win. “It’s just focusing on what’s next. We know we have a good team and we come out expecting to win every night. We don’t want to change that.”

Medicine Hat did well to keep up with Prince Albert’s early pace — matching the Raiders with nine shots through the opening frame — but the East Division juggernauts made the most of their opportunities in the first period with goals from Ozzy Weisblatt and Leason.

Ryan Chyzowski attempted to light a fire beneath the blades of his teammates by dropping the mitts with Raiders captain Brayden Pachal in the dying minutes of the frame. The gritty trend continued just 20 seconds into the second when Medicine Hat’s Bryan Lockner went at it with Kody McDonald in an even fiercer bout, but the Raiders immediately responded with more offence.

“We needed a little spark. The way hockey is now, it doesn’t happen that much but I thought we needed it,” said Lockner. “It was good for Chyzowski to step in there and get something going.”

Parker Kelly stretched the lead to three after picking up a behind-the-net pass from Leason and chipping the puck through Tigers goaltender Jordan Hollett just 21 seconds after Lockner’s fight, then Leason struck again on a shorthanded breakaway 49 seconds after that to double up on Prince Albert’s lead with their first two shots of the middle frame.

Josh Williams put the Tigers on the board midway through the period when he cut in on goal and deked around Raiders goaltender Ian Scott for his fourth of the year — snapping Scott’s bid for a league-leading fifth shutout.

Hayden Ostir appeared to cut the deficit in half with 4.6 seconds remaining in the second when he batted a puck over his shoulder and past Scott, but the tally was immediately waved off and the call was upheld by video review.

Lockner continued the comeback attempt two minutes into the third period when he threaded a pass from Tyler Preziuso through Scott’s five-hole — injecting some life into the Tigers bench— then Ryan Jevne cut Prince Albert’s lead down to one by jamming in a rebound six minutes later.

“We knew we had to claw back against that team so we had to get something going,” said Lockner. “We had some hits, some fights and some big blocks and I think we gave ourselves a chance in the third.”

But the momentum was snuffed out halfway through the frame when Hollett lost a shot from Pachal in his pads and watched it trickle past him into the net. Kelly and Aliaksei Protas quickly added two more to re-establish Prince Albert’s four-goal cushion and send the Tigers back into the loss column.

“We got a lucky bounce, the goalie made a mistake and lost some confidence and we just thrived off that,” said Leason. “We brought it on toward the end and they couldn’t compete.”

Hollett settled for an 18-save setback, dropping Medicine Hat to 10-12-1-2 on the season. Mads S¿gaard took over the crease from Hollett following Protas’ marker and stopped eight in relief.

Scott collected the win with 26 saves.

The Tigers make the trip to Red Deer to take on the Rebels Saturday at 7 p.m.

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