NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Cubs goaltender Mark Peddle and defenceman Dylan Trembecki watch on as a Cochrane forward knocks in a loose puck in the second period of the Cubs 6-5 Game 1 loss of their semifinals series with the Generals on Tuesday at the Kinplex.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com
The Medicine Hat Cubs just couldn’t get the last goal Tuesday night against Cochrane.
After leading 5-3 through 40 minutes the Cubs fell 6-5 against the Generals to lose Game 1 of their semifinals series. Head coach and general manager Randy Wong said they were tentative to start their first playoff contest and let Cochrane take the game.
“We just didn’t make the right plays at the right time and we didn’t make enough good hockey plays,” Wong said. “We panicked a little bit, we didn’t have enough guys. We had our one line going, I think they scored most of the goals and we just didn’t have enough secondary scoring. It can just be on one line, it can’t be on our goalie. It takes the full team to kind of push through in playoffs.”
Medicine Hat and Cochrane traded goals in the first period as the Generals Andrew Gussopened the scoring just 1:06 into the contest. Cooper Hilworth got the Cubs on the board 2:15 later with his first of the game, Brady Mahar had the assist.
After Cochrane regained their lead with a goal from Tristan Ripplinger at 12:07, Medicine Hat tied it up with 1:27 left in the period with a goal from Colby Friedrich. Captain Levi Schlosser and Hilworth had the assists on the tying goal.
The two teams continued to trade goals in the second period as Cochrane’s Diago Coelho scored 6:03 into the frame before the Cubs answered back 11 seconds later with Schlosser scoring the tying goal. Hilworth and Friedrich had the helpers.
Medicine Hat made a goaltending change after Cochrane’s second period goal with Mark Peddle entering the game in relief of starter Kellen Bojic who had nine saves on 12 shots. Peddle had 10 saves on 13 shots.
The Cubs rattled off two more straight goals in the second from Kyle Woolridge (Caleb Garrecht, Vaughn Strutt with the assists) and Connor Douglas (Woolridge). With 1:12 left in the period Patrick Forde scored for Cochrane as they clawed their way back to a two goal deficit.
It was all Generals in the third period as they scored two goals in less than three minutes to tie the game before taking the lead. Logan Paquette had the tying goal and Coelho notched the game winner with his second of the game. Cochrane made a goalie change ahead of the third period with Jordan McGinnis taking over the crease from starter Kashton Payne.
The Cubs had their chances with the goalie pulled they could not find the back of the net as Cochrane held on for the 6-5 win. Game 2 of the series is back at the Kinplex and get’s underway at 8:15 p.m. Wong says they hope the loss in Game 1 is a wakeup call for his team.
“You hope that it’s, ‘oh geez, we’re not all that,’ and we knew coming into tonight that it was probably going to be probably a long series,” Wong said. “So you come back, you get that second game and you end up making it a long series, do the right thing in the second game. We have to write off today and we have to think about the next one.”
Editors note: Story updated to include the name of the Cochrane Generals.
