Lack of scoring an issue

By Ryan McCracken on November 17, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

The Medicine Hat Tigers saw their road woes continue on Saturday night at Westoba Place.

Tigers goaltender Jordan Hollett provided the silver lining with a 49-save performance, but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Brandon Wheat Kings from extending Medicine Hat’s losing streak to five games with a 4-1 victory.

“We’re putting a lot of pressure on our goaltenders to stop everything and they’re doing a good job for us, but we’ve got to get them some help,” said Tigers head coach Shaun Clouston. “We’ve got to give them a little bit more help and score some goals. We just have to score some goals. Somebody’s got to take the puck into the blue paint, somebody’s got to rip one bar down or right along the ice, someone’s got to pound one off the pads while somebody’s going to the net for a rebound — we’ve just got to score some goals.”

The setback drops the Tigers to 4-8-0-1 on the road and 9-11-1-2 on the season, and leaves them with one remaining opportunity to collect points on their four-game East Division road trip when they roll into Swift Current to take on the Broncos (3-17-1-1) Saturday.

Medicine Hat’s struggles set in early when Wheaties centre Ridly Greig broke down the left wing and beat Hollett clean from the top of the circle less than three minutes into the game.

Hollett settled back into his crease and gave his Tigers a boost when he sprawled out to rob Stelio Mattheos on 2-on-1 rush a few moments later. But the Wheat Kings continued to chip away and Linden McCorrister broke through to double up on the lead halfway through the first period.

The Wheat Kings went on to pepper 26 shots on goal in that opening frame while holding Medicine Hat to seven, but the Tigers responded early in the second.

Baxter Anderson cut the deficit in half when he picked up a pass from Bryan Lockner in the slot and fired the puck past Wheaties goaltender Ethan Kruger for his first of the season.

“The bright part was that Hollett kept us in there in the first period and we really responded in the second,” said Clouston. “For some reason we weren’t quite ready to go, and that’s on us as coaches. We were flat, we weren’t moving our feet and they really took it to us. We regrouped and the second was great, but we weren’t able to sustain that.”

The Tigers continued to push the pace, outshooting Brandon 13-9 in the second, but Kruger kept the Wheat Kings in front and Ben McCartney re-established a two-goal lead with a highlight worthy individual effort midway through the third.

The 17-year-old winger picked up the puck at the blue line, deked through Cole Clayton and tucked it past Hollett for his third of the year. McCartney struck again four minutes later, cutting behind the net and beating Hollett with a wraparound to push the game out of reach.

Kruger locked up the victory with 34 saves, lifting Brandon to 10-4-3-3 on the year.

Medicine Hat was without forward Elijah Brown for the second straight game. The 18-year-old Edmonton product returned home for evaluation after suffering a shoulder injury on a hit in Tuesday’s 4-2 loss to the Saskatoon Blades.

“He’s getting assessed. It’s not great and we don’t know quite the extent of it,” said Clouston of Brown, who has four goals and seven assists on the season. “It was a hit against the boards. He was extended a little bit, not a vicious hit, just a solid hit as he was carrying the puck up the boards.”

The Tigers hit the ice in Swift Current Saturday at 6 p.m.

17
-16