Tigers drop 10-round shootout
By Ryan McCracken on October 1, 2018.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken The Medicine Hat Tigers were four minutes away from heading home with a victory, but Max Gerlach had other plans. The former Tiger-turned-Saskatoon Blade scored in the dying minutes of regulation to force overtime and set the stage for an unrelenting 10-round shootout victory, 4-3 over Medicine Hat on Saturday night at the SaskTel Centre. “I don’t think many guys have been in that situation before. Obviously it’s pretty intense in the moment,”said Gerlach, adding it gave both teams a chance to show off their depth. “It’s pretty fun to see some of those guys who don’t usually get those opportunities — whether it’s to be out on the power play or a 6-on-5 or play in overtime —get a chance and show us something nobody’s really seen out of them.” Blades centre Kirby Dach and Tigers captain James Hamblin traded goals in the first round of the shootout, then Saskatoon’s Dawson Davidson and Medicine Hat’s Bryan Lockner exchanged markers again in the ninth before Riley McKay finally edged out the Tigers in the 10th round. “I’ve been in some long shootouts, but maybe not that long,” said Tigers goaltender Mads Søgaard, who made his Western HockeyLeague debut in the shootout loss. “You’re just trying to focus on one shot each and just try to put your team in a position to win the game. Unfortunately we came up short but I think we had a really good game. We really played a lot better than we played the last couple games.” Søgaard stopped 39 shots to keep his Tigers in the contest then opened the door for six potential shootout winners by stopping 7-of-10 Blades before ultimately settling for the loss. “Mads was great for us,” said Hamblin. “It was awesome to see that he had the confidence that he did back there. He’s going to be huge for us.” Hamblin gave the Tigers an early boost when he collected a puck in the corner and put it past Blades goaltender Nolan Maier from a sharp angle just over three minutes into action. The Blades answered back eight minutes later when a neutral zone turnover sprung Josh Paterson and Chase Wouters on an odd-man rush. While Søgaard made the initial save on Paterson, Wouters was waiting on the edge of the crease to bang in the rebound and knot up the game. Facing the potential of a fruitless 0-3 road trip, Hamblin took matters into his own hands. The Hat captain forced a turnover at the Saskatoon blue line, cut in on goal and beat Maier clean to push the Tigers in front after 20 minutes despite being outshot 15-9 in the period. The Tigers and Blades traded chances through an evenly matched middle frame, but neither team was able to shift the score until Blades winger Kristian Roykas Marthinsen beat Søgaard with a long wrist shot one minute into the third. Saskatoon’s momentum was quickly cut short when Erik Florchuk was nabbed for cross checking and Hayden Ostir made him pay for the infraction. Hamblin found Ostir on the doorstep just 22 seconds into Florchuk’s minor, and the 19-year-old right-winger ripped the feed through Maier for his first of the season. “It was a big goal for us and it’s good that he got the monkey off his back,”said Hamblin. “Hopefully now he can keep going and put some more in the net.” The Blades were given two prime opportunities to draw even when Henrik Rybinski was caught on back-to-back tripping calls inside the final six minutes of regulation, and Gerlach made good on the second chance to force overtime. After sudden death failed to provide a winner, the test of endurance stretched into a lengthy shootout. Maier collected the victory on 29 saves, lifting the Blades to 3-0-0-0. Medicine Hat fell to 1-3-0-1 with the loss. While they head home from their three-game road trip with a single point, Hamblin says the Tigers managed to grow as a team in the process. “The guys really came out and showed a lot of character,” said Hamblin. “We built each game this road trip. It was a tough result but the guys really came out and played a good game.” The Tigers return to the Canalta Centre to host the Prince Albert Raiders on Wednesday at 7 p.m. 21
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