JAMES TUBB MEDICINE HAT NEWS
Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Beckett Langkow keeps his eye on the puck in the first period of an 5-4 overtime loss against the Red Deer Rebels on Feb. 18 at Co-op Place.
The Red Deer Rebels walked away with the extra point Saturday night in Medicine Hat following an overtime showcase against the Tigers.
Kai Uchacz scored 3:34 into overtime as the Tigers fell 5-4 in the extra frame, picking up a point in the process. Associate coach Joe Frazer thought the Tigers started slow and gave Red Deer too many chances on the man advantage.
“We stayed resilient, it looked like we we’re a little rusty having not played for a week, the first seven minutes were a little rusty and they came out hard,” Frazer said. “After that we played a pretty good game, just penalty trouble got us.”
All four of Red Deer’s goals in regulation time came with the man advantage as they were 4-for-6 on the power play, including scoring two straight goals to tie the game at 3-3 on a five minute major handed to Oasiz Wiesblatt for charging in the second period.
“They have a great power play so when you take a five minute (penalty), it’s tough,” Frazer said. “We were doing well and then they potted that first one, we almost had it killed off and then they got the one off the rush.
“You just can’t give a team like that six power plays, we definitely have to be more disciplined on Monday.”
The Tigers are back in Red Deer on Monday for a 2 p.m. contest against the Rebels, their final matchup of the regular season.
It was Red Deer who opened the scoring Saturday, with Hunter Mayo scoring the only goal of the first period on the power play. Jace Isley and Christoffer Sedoff had the assists.
The Tigers answered back in the second with a string of three goals in a span of 5:35 for an 3-1 lead. Shane Smith knocked in a rebound on a rush off a Dallon Melin shot at the 4:23 mark to bring the crowd of 2,635 to their feet. Cayden Lindstrom had the second assist.
Just over two minutes later, Lindstrom wired home a one-time shot on a man advantage for his 15th goal of the season. Andrew Basha and Wiesblatt had the assists. Brendan Lee capped off the offensive run with his own power play one-timer for his 22nd goal of the year. Kurtis Smythe and Tyler MacKenzie had the assists.
The Rebels goals on the five minute major game from Uchacz and Mats Lindgren. Red Deer carried their second period momentum into the third period with a goal from Frantisek Formanek at the 1:18 for the 4-3 lead.
Medicine Hat answered back 2:19 later with Smith’s second goal of the game as he knocked in a loose puck on the power play. Basha and Reid Andresen had the assists while as Medicine Hat finished their night 2-for-3 on the power play. Smith says he enjoys getting to score in front of Tigers fans but would have liked to get the game winner and come away with two points.
“We knew coming in they’re a really good team,” Smith said.”Getting the point is always good against a team like that but obviously we fell a little short of our goal not getting the win there at the end.”
Both teams traded chances in the remaining time of the third period but could not find twine and forced overtime. Red Deer controlled the pace for a majority of the extra frame before Uchacz snuck a shot through Beckett Langkow for his second of the night, 43rd of the year and the game winner.
Langkow made 26 saves on the night and across the ice from him, Rebels net minder Chase Wutzke picked up the win making 18 saves.
Despite the loss, the Tigers (22-22-8-1) pickup a point and keep themselves in the fight for a spot in the playoffs in the Eastern Conference. They wrap up their season series with the Rebels on Family Day Monday with a 2 p.m. contest in Red Deer.
Lindstrom says he’s already looking at Monday’s game as a chance to make up for the loss.
“We know what we need to do against them, we just need to play them hard,” Lindstrom said. ” Except we need to just keep going, push them and try not to take as many penalties as we did tonight.”
