NEWS FILE PHOTO Medicine Hat Tigers centre Ryan Chyzowski celebrates his goal during the second period of a January 2018 Western Hockey League game against the Moose Jaw Warriors at the Canalta Centre. Chyzowski is on the shelf after he suffered a laceration above the back of his knee in the Tigers' 4-3 loss to the Calgary Hitmen on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019.
Medicine Hat News
The Medicine Hat Tigers struck while the iron was hot on Saturday night at the Canalta Centre.
After weathering a vicious early storm, the Tabbies rallied back to steal a 5-3 victory from the hands of the Western Hockey League leading Moose Jaw Warriors by making the most of every opportunity that fell their way.
David Quenneville and James Hamblin stole away an early Warrior lead with a pair of back-to-back power play goals in the second — permanently shifting the momentum after losing defenceman Joel Craven to a check to the head — then Mark Rassell stepped up with the eventual game-winner to hand the Warriors their second setback of 2018.
While Brayden Burke put the Warriors out in front at the tail end of the first period on a tap-in goal assisted by Kale Clague, the Tigers managed to remain within striking distance thanks to a strong performance between the pipes by Jordan Hollett.
The Hat netminder withstood a near-relentless barrage as Moose Jaw hemmed the Tigers into their own end for the majority of the opening frame while racking up a 15-5 lead in the shot department.
Hollett’s efforts opened a window for Ryan Chyzowski to draw even early in the second when he deflected a Quenneville shot over the shoulder of Warriors netminder Adam Evanoff for his 16th of the year.
While Warriors winger Tanner Jeannot struck to regain the narrow lead just 36 seconds after Chyzowski’s marker, the Tigers shifted the tide when things turned ugly a few minutes later.
Warriors winger Barrett Sheen was promptly handed a five-minute major and a game misconduct after taking a run at Craven in the Tigers end and knocking him out of the game with an elbow to the head. The check occurred just after Vince Loschiavo was nabbed for holding and left Medicine with two minutes of 5-on-3 power play, as well as three extra minutes with Sheen’s major — and the Tabbies made sure the Warriors paid for their misdeeds.
First Quenneville stepped into a slap shot at the point just over a minute into the advantage and beat Evanoff through the wickets to become the first WHL defenceman score 20 goals this season, then Hamblin took over the lead with 46 seconds left in Sheen’s major to light up the crowd of 3,268 and push the Tigers in front after 40 minutes.
Rassell kept the good times rolling with his 42nd goal of the year just less than two minutes into the final frame. The 20-year-old Calgary product stuck with the play and beat Evanoff on a second-chance rebound to give the Tigers some much-needed breathing room early in the third.
While Warriors centre Ryan Peckford cut the lead back down to one by beating Hollett on a centering pass from Clague with eight minutes left in regulation, Quenneville iced the game on an empty-netter with 2.8 seconds left.
Hollett collected a well-earned 33-save victory to push Medicine Hat to 26-19-6-0 on the year. Evanoff allowed four goals on 23 shots to take the loss, dropping Moose Jaw to 39-8-1-2.
The Tigers hit the road to face the Kelowna Rockets (31-14-3-1) on Tuesday at 8:05 p.m.
