NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Carter Cunningham pushes a puck through Prince Albert forward Oli Chenier in the first period of a 5-4 overtime loss Saturday to the Raiders at Co-op Place.
The Medicine Hat Tigers picked up a much-needed point to end a flat weekend.
The Tigers forced overtime in the third period Saturday, eventually falling 5-4 to the Prince Albert Raiders. It’s the second loss of the weekend, third straight for the Tigers, who dropped a two-goal third period lead in a 5-3 loss Friday at Co-op Place to the Swift Current Broncos.
Head coach Willie Desjardins liked their response in the game Saturday.
“I didn’t think our game was bad (Friday), it was disappointing, we should have put that one away,” Desjardins said. “It was good to come back tonight without Wiesblatt tonight he’s a big part of our team, so that’s tough to play without him. So anyway, so that was big. We were down, the end of the second cost us big time, our penalties hurt us tonight and we had been so good on that, but we just weren’t as good tonight.”
The Tigers were without captain Oasiz Wiesblatt who was suspended following a checking major and game misconduct late in Friday’s loss to Swift Current. His suspension length is still to be determined by the league Desjardins says. With Wiesblatt out of the lineup, Gavin McKenna slotted in as centre on the top line, a first in his WHL career. He finished 7/16 in the dot, Prince Albert won the face-off battle 35-33.
Prince Albert opened the scoring with a familiar face scoring on a turnover.
Former Tiger forward Tomas Mrsic picked off a pass in the Prince Albert end and flew down the ice, scoring on a breakaway for a 1-1 lead 11:43 into the game. That marker was his first as a Raider against his former club and his 30th of the season.
The Tigers tied the game up less than a minute later, with their youngest line doing the work. A rush chance saw Markus Ruck fire a puck on net for a rebound off Max Hildebrand. Younger twin brother Liam knocked in the rebound for the 1-1 score at 12:13. Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll had the second assist on Liam’s 17th of the season.
Prince Albert ended the opening frame with the lead, capitalizing on a power play. A point shot from Lukas Dragicevic was redirected by Niall Crocker for the 2-1 Raider lead with 2:43 seconds left in the opening period. Mrsic had the second assist.
The Tigers didn’t wait long into the middle frame to tie the game, nabbing a brief lead.
Just 31 seconds in the second period, on a power play, Ryder Ritchie redirected a shot from Tanner Molendyk into the net to make it a 2-2 game. McKenna had the second assist on Ritchie’s 20th of the season, the helper extending McKenna’ point streak to 28 games.
The Tigers grabbed a lead 7:08 later. Molendyk dropped a pass to fellow former Saskatoon Blade Misha Volotovskii near the slot and he wired home his first as a Tiger for the 3-2 lead at 7:39.
The two teams traded chances throughout the frame before Prince Albert struck twice to end the frame.
On a late power play, Brayden Dube had the puck in the corner to the right of Harrison Meneghin and fed Crocker in front who jammed the puck through the Tiger net minder. Mrsic had the second assist on the tying goal at 18:48.
Exactly 30 seconds later, on a two-on-one rush, Rilen Kovacevic scored with a wrist shot just off the ice to put the Raiders ahead 4-3 after 40 minutes. Harrison Lodewyk and Vojtech Vochvest had the assists.
After a third period of the Tigers pushing for the tie and the Raiders looking for insurance, it was the Tabbies finding luck.
With less than six minutes left in the period, with sustained pressure in the Prince Albert end, Mat Ward had the puck at the side of the net and banked it in off Hildebrand for the 4-4 score at 14:13. McKenna had the lone assist on Ward’s 14 as the game remained tied after regulation. The 17-year-old forward liked their bounce back in the third.
“We know that we’re never out of games, we’ve showed that on the US road trip,” McKenna said. “If we’re down, we’re never out and there’s always a chance we’ll come back if we just play our game. So it was good for us to come back against a good team like that. But it’s not good enough.”
Before overtime, with 13 seconds left in the third period, Ward had his stick ride up and catch defenceman Lukas Dragicevic in the face, giving the Raiders a power play to start overtime. They utilized it quickly, with Dragicevic blasting one-timer from the point 44 seconds into the extra frame for the 5-4 final. Mrsic and Aiden Oiring had the assists as the Raiders beat Medicine Hat for the first time this season.
Hildebrand stopped 29 Tiger shots. Across the ice, Meneghin made 17 stops. The Raiders finished 3-5 on the power play, Tigers 1-5.
The Tigers (33-16-3-1) have a pair of off days before they head to Saskatoon on Tuesday to face the Blades. They’ll also have a rematch with the Raiders, taking on Prince Albert on the road Wednesday as part of the WHL’s ‘Wednesday night in the Dub.’ That game will be free to watch on the league’s YouTube page.
Game notes
Attendance: 3,886
Three stars
First star: PA Lukas Dragicevic (1G, 1A, OT game winner)
Second star: PA Tomas Mrsic (1G, 3A)
Third star: MH Tanner Molendyk (2A)
