NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers defenceman Pasha Bocharov celebrates his first period goal in the Tigers 5-1 win Saturday night at Co-op Place against the Brandon Wheat Kings.
On a dark and rainy Saturday night in Medicine Hat, the Tigers shined.
The Tigers rebounded from a 4-2 loss Friday night against the Red Deer Rebels with a three goal first period and holding on for a 5-1 win Saturday against the Brandon Wheat Kings at Co-op Place.
Tigers associate coach Joe Frazer says he liked how the Tigers started the game and how they used their forecheck to maintain possession.
“We’re built on speed, we want to be relentless on the forecheck and we use our speed to create turnovers to help us create chances in the o-zone,” Frazer said. “The forecheck is a big part of our game.”
Tigers net minder Beckett Langkow made 22 saves in the win and was working his way towards his first career WHL shutout until the Wheat Kings cracked the scoreboard halfway through the third. The Vegreville product, who made his 10th straight start on Saturday, says the win feels better coming off of Friday’s loss.
“Tonight was just one of those games, seeing the puck well and pucks were just hitting me,” Langkow said. “I think sometimes as a goalie you just have those kind of nights and tonight was one of them for sure.”
The Tigers opened the scoring in the game when Reid Andresen tipped in a shot from Tyler Mackenzie for his third goal of the season. Brayden Boehm had the second assists on Andresen’s goal which came 4:45 into the game.
A little under two minutes later the Tigers struck again with a power play goal from Owen MacNeil, his second marker of the season. Defensemen Dru Krebs and Pasha Bocharov had the helpers on what was the eventual game winner. With six seconds left in the period and while on the penalty kill the Tigers got a break.
Forward Hunter St. Martin carried the puck up the opposite side of the ice of the benches, and fired a shot off Wheat Kings goalie Nicholas Jones that ricocheted right to Bocharov who had no problem shovelling it into the back of the net. Shane Smith had the second assist on Bocharov’s shorthanded goal. He couldn’t remember the last time he had a shorthanded goal and says he couldn’t have scored without St. Martin’s effort.
” I saw that Marty had a break and he’s pretty fast, so I thought I need to catch up to him and go to the net,” Bocharov said. “He’s pretty reliable when it comes to that, I trust him to get it there and that’s what happened.”
The two teams traded chances in the second period but neither squad could track the scoreboard. Medicine Hat outshot the Wheat Kings 39-23 in the win.
After Brett Hyland scored the Wheat Kings lone goal of the game, a power play marker 9:54 into the third period, the Tigers added some late offence with the man advantage. The Tigers had a 5-on-3 opportunity late after Wheat Kings forward Zakhar Polshakov and defenceman Mason Ward were each penalized (Ward was given a misconduct).
They capitalized on that advantage when Brendan Lee scored his sixth goal of the season after picking up a turnover in the slot and firing the shot top shelf. A mere 19 seconds later, the Tigers struck again when Boehm picked up his own rebound while skating on the goal line and tapped in his fourth goal of the season. Bocharov and Langkow had the assists on the Tigers third power play goal of the game on eight advantages.
Frazer says the Tigers did a good job of controlling their own emotions to stay out of the box and it was nice to see the power play in action after going cold against Red Deer.
“Last night I thought we got out worked, and that can’t happen. I thought tonight the guys, we hit a few posts, the guys got rewarded for working hard,” Frazer said. “That’s a really good kill. I think they’re second in the league, you know, 92-93 per cent on their kills so it was big to get a few on the power play.”
The Tigers (4-5-1) have a week of practice before their next set of games, a two contest set at home against the Saskatoon Blades on Friday and the Victoria Royals at Co-op Place on Saturday.
