Herald photo by Dale Woodard Medicine Hat Tigers centre Elijah Brown tries to get around Lethbridge Hurricanes defenceman Calen Addison in Western Hockey League play Saturday, Oct. 26, 2019 at the Enmax Centre.
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It was a two-minute wait for James Hamblin that might have felt even longer.
However, the veteran forward for the Medicine Hat Tigers made sure his team got the two points they were looking for as the Tigers rallied to top the Lethbridge Hurricanes in a 3-2 shootout in Western Hockey League action Saturday night at the Enmax Centre.
Hamblin scored the only goal in the shootout, but first had to sweat it out in the sin bin in overtime after getting whistled down for hooking – forcing his team into a crucial penalty kill in the late stages of the extra session.
When the Tigers killed the infraction and got it to the shootout, the 20-year-old forward rewarded his teammates with a goal on Medicine Hat’s first chance. At the other end, Tigers goaltender Garin Bjorklund denied Dylan Cozens, Logan Barlage and Dino Kambeitz for the win that improves the Tigers to 9-4-1-0 – one point behind the Canes (9-4-0-2) for second in Central Division.
The Tigers man advantage was 2-for-4 on the night, while the Canes were 1-for-6, including the golden four-on-three chance in overtime with Hamblin cooling his heels that the hosts were unable to convert.
Medicine Hat almost ended the game in overtime just prior to that when Ryan Chyzowski rattled a shot off the cross bar behind Hurricanes goaltender Carl Tetachuk.
“I thought it was a really gutsy effort on our part,” said Hamblin, who also opened the scoring on the power play with his sixth of the season 36 seconds into the game before teammate Elijah Brown scored another man-advantage marker with 6:40 left in regulation to force overtime. “Lethbridge has been doing really well of late, so we knew it was going to be a challenge coming into their building. But I thought we really worked hard. We stuck to it the entire night got rewarded in the end.
“The power play got both of our goals for us and our penalty kill was huge. We had some tough penalties at the end. The guys really battled and blocked some key shots.”
The loss snaps Lethbridge’s five-game winning streak on a night they went 1-for-6 on the power play and spoiled a 41-save performance from Tetachuk.
After Hamblin handed his team the early lead, the Canes responded with their only man-advantage goal of the night when Oliver Okuliar scored with 4:05 left in the first.
Cozens gave the Hurricanes the lead on a highlight reel goal with 5:40 left in the second to make it 2-1, but Brown’s power play goal sent the game to overtime and ultimately the shootout.
“I thought Medicine Hat was the better team,” said Hurricanes head coach Brent Kisio. “I thought Tetachuk kept us in the game. Our special teams have to be better. They got two power play goals and we got one-for-six and that wasn’t good enough. We had a couple chances late to end the game and we have to find a way to end that game on our power play.”
That was when Hamblin could only watch.
“That was really hard to watch, especially with the talent on Lethbridge,” he said. “It was not an easy two minutes for me. I thought (the call) was a little bit soft. But the ref is going to make that call and we did a great job killing it off.”
Tetachuk faced 43 shots, while Bjorklund turned aside 30-of-32.
“It’s a big rivalry between us,” said Tetachuk. “Both teams are really talented. They got opportunities and we got opportunities, but we had to bear down at the end.”
Cozens added an assist and now has 10 goals and 17 points in 13 games.
“Obviously getting down right away 1-0 on the penalty kill wasn’t ideal, but we battled back and we got the lead,” said the Buffalo Sabres prospect. “We just have to find a way to close that out. We had lots of power plays and we got one, but we have to find a way to get more goals. That’s on our power-play, we have to step that up. The other big thing is in our D-zone. We have to stick on our guys. They’re slipping through and finding lots of chances. Carl really held us in that game. We turned too many pucks over in the neutral zone and they got chances the other way. So that’s on us. We know we need to be better.”
Brett Kemp had two assists for Medicine Hat.
The Tigers continue their nine-game road trek Saturday when they face the Royals in Victoria.
