Home team digs deep, but undone by top goalie

By Ryan McCracken on November 16, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

The South East Athletic Club Tigers ran into a wall named Max Hildebrand on Thursday night at the Kinplex.

Despite outshooting the Martensville Marauders by a 42-25 margin, the Tigers were forced to open the Hockey Hounds Major Bantam Tournament with a 4-2 loss.

“Credit to him. The kid had a good game,” said Tigers head coach Jason Bartram. “I asked them to put up 15 shots a period and give themselves a chance to win and they did.”

The Tigers controlled the early flow of action, outshooting the Marauders 10-5 through the first period, but they were unable to solve Hildebrand and entered the intermission empty-handed.

The Marauders — who are 9-0 in Saskatchewan AA Hockey League play this season — snapped the scoreless stalemate at the seven-minute mark of the middle frame when Riley Heidt beat Tigers netminder Kaiden Morin off the rush for his first of the tournament.

The Tigers struck back a few minutes later when Dayden Collier beat Hildebrand to ignite the crowd at the Kinplex, then Dawson Seitz snapped one under the bar in the dying minutes of the second.

“I thought we took the first 15 minutes of the first period off but found a way to come around in the second period,” said Bartram, whose Tigers are 7-4-2 on the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League season. “When we got pucks down low and battled down low, we were a better team than we were walking the boards. I thought we could outpower the defence a little bit, and we did. That’s where we generated some offence.”

The Marauders brought a better effort to the third period but it was a lucky bounce that got them back into the game. Nearing the halfway point of the final frame, Tysen Durant flipped a puck into the Tigers end before heading to the bench for a change, only to watch it skip through Morin’s pads for an equalizer.

The Marauders stole back the lead a few minutes later when Brayden Yager found Heidt for a cross-crease tap-in, then Yager converted on a late odd-man rush to put the game out of reach.

“A couple mental mistakes, that happens in hockey. It takes the wind out of the sails,” said Bartram.”At the end of the day we need to be better for next weekend when we get back into league. Everybody is on the same page right now with getting some exhibition games in here and making sure we’re healthy going into next weekend.”

Hildebrand collected the victory with 40 saves. Morin stopped 21 in the loss.

In other tournament action, St. George’s Academy kicked off their weekend with a lopsided 12-1 victory over Prince Albert, Churchill High defeated North East 6-2, Delta Academy topped Edmonton 5-1 and Airdrie blanked Spruce Grove 2-0. In the remaining late games, Lethbridge beat Lloydminster 6-2, Calgary Edge fell 8-7 to Swift Current and Balgonie doubled up on Pursuit of Excellence, 4-2.

The Tigers return to the ice this morning at 11 a.m. to host Swift Current at the Hockey Hounds Arena before wrapping up the group stage with an 8 p.m. matchup against the Calgary Edge at Kin2.

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