NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Beckett Langkow keeps his eye on the puck with a battle in front of the net during the first period of their 3-1 loss Tuesday night against the Prince Albert Raiders at Co-op Place.
A late 5-on-3 penalty kill cost the Medicine Hat Tigers against Prince Albert Tuesday night.
The Tigers and Raiders were tied at 1-1 through 50 minutes before a late power play goal on the tail end of a 5-on-3 penalty kill before an empty netter sealed the win for Prince Albert.
The loss Tuesday marks six straight for the Tigers, who have not been out of a game but have a record of 4-9-3. Head coach Willie Desjardins said they were good enough to win.
“The chances were 13-2 to start the game and we had the disallowed goal and we seemed to back off a little bit but the game was there for us,” Desjardins said. “They are just there and we’re just not, we’re not finding a way.”
The Tigers appeared to open the scoring in the first period with what would have been Gavin McKenna’s first Western Hockey League goal. But it was called back immediately due to goaltender interference. Neither team scored in the second period either as Beckett Langkow and Raiders goaltender Tikhon Chaika were going save for save between the pipes.
Medicine Hat cashed in early in the third with a power play goal from Tyler Mackenzie 4:01 into the frame. Oasiz Wiesblatt and Andrew Basha had the assists on MacKenzie’s sixth of the season.
MacKenzie said it was nice to get rewarded with a goal and their special teams will be a big part of their success.
Prince Albert answered back only 58 seconds later on a breakaway goal from Sloan Stanick. The Raiders grabbed the lead with seven seconds left on that Tigers late penalty kill with a goal from Hayden Pakkala with 4:25 left in the game. Medicine Hat pressed with the net empty but it was the Raiders who capitalized with Carson Latimer scoring the empty netter for the 3-1 win.
Chaika made 33 saves in the Prince Albert win and across the ice, Langkow made 25 saves for the Tigers. He thought the Tigers played well and just need to keep doing what they are to find success.
“Especially at the start there we were all over them and throughout different parts of the game we were just dominating,” Langkow said. “It’s been a struggle to score over the last chunk of games that we’ve lost here and we just ahem to to stick to our game and just keep going on. I know I’ve said that the last couple of games but if we just keep doing what we’re doing, we’ll break through it and the pucks will just start going in the net.”
The Tigers have two days of practice before they host the Moose Jaw Warriors on Friday at Co-op Place. That game gets underway at 7 p.m.
“We just have to be ready to play hard, nothing changes and everybody has to be committed to it,” Desjardins said.
