NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN - Medicine Hat Tigers captain James Hamblin throws a punch at Prince Albert Raiders defenceman Jeremy Masella - who stands seven inches taller and 35 pounds heavier than Hamblin - during a fight in a Western Hockey League game at the Canalta Centre on Saturday.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
The Medicine Hat Tigers brought down a giant on Saturday night at the Canalta Centre.
While the Prince Albert Raiders shook off a very slow start and rallied to erase a two-goal deficit, the Tigers came through in the clutch to hand the reigning Western Hockey League champions their first regulation loss since Nov. 9 with a 4-2 victory.
“Best game I’ve been a part of in two years here. Best game,” said Tigers assistant coach Ryan Smith. “We knew we had to be on top of our game and I thought we were, especially at the start.”
The Tigers came storming out of the gates – holding Prince Albert without a shot for the first 15 minutes of the game while building up a 2-0 lead on goals from Cole Sillinger and Jonathan Brinkman.
“I think that was a key for us today, was getting on them early,” said Hat captain James Hamblin. “We know how they like to use their speed in transition so I think we did a good job of just getting pucks behind them and not letting them do that.”
Prince Albert got the first power play when Noah Danielson was sent to the bin for cross checking early in the first, but they were unable to get anything on net and Sillinger quickly tilted the ice in Medicine Hat’s favour. The 16-year-old Regina product parked himself in the left circle and watched as Brett Kemp won a battle behind the net and fed him a one-timer for his 10th goal of the season.
It only took 34 seconds for Brinkman to double up on the lead, picking up a pass from Elijah Brown down low and beating Boston Bilous from a sharp angle to chase the Raider netminder from the crease on five shots.
“The first half of the game I don’t think we touched the puck much, we just chased it,” said Raiders head coach Mark Habscheid. “There were probably two goals our goalie wanted back. Then we got a little bit of traction and made it interesting.”
Carter Serhyenko entered in relief and held his Raiders in a 2-0 deficit after 20 minutes, then Evan Herman sparked something on their bench through a fight with Eric Van Impe early in the second period.
Riding the new energy, Raiders defenceman Remy Aquilon put Prince Albert on the board with a shot from the point, then Spencer Moe beat Hat netminder Mads Søgaard with his team’s seventh shot to erase the deficit and set up a winner-take-all third.
“You can’t hold a team like this off forever,” said Smith.
While Prince Albert entered the final frame with the momentum, Kemp stole back the lead with 11 minutes left when he fired a pass from Ryan Chyzowski behind Serhyenko off the rush.
“We just wanted to stay composed,” said Kemp. “We knew they were going to come back and we kind of let off in the second, but we knew if we had a good third we’d come out with the W like we did.”
Habscheid expressed disappointment with Kemp’s goal – which held up as the game-winner – saying contact with a linesman helped open up the opportunity.
“It was a tough break,” Habscheid said. “The linesman got in the way and it ended up in our net. Pick up your feet. That’s a tough way to lose.”
Jeremy Masella attempted to get his Raiders back in the game by drawing Hamblin into a fight, however the 5-foot-10, 181-pound Tabby captain managed to get the best of his 6-foot-5, 216-pound opponent to earn a rousing ovation from both the crowd of 2,855 and his bench.
“I was just going as hard as I could and I was just happy it went my way,” said Hamblin. “They were pretty rough on us today and he kind of took liberties on (Tyler) Preziuso. I had a couple words there back-and-forth with him and then it was just impulse.”
While Hamblin received a 10-minute misconduct due to the altercation, Masella took an added minor for cross checking and Corson Hopwo converted on the advantage to restore Medicine Hat’s two-goal lead entering the dying minutes of regulation.
Søgaard settled back into his crease and locked down the victory with 12 saves in the third for a total of 25 on the night. The 6-foot-7 Dane even came a few inches shy of scoring a goal after sending a puck the length of the ice and watching it trickle just wide.
“I actually talked to him about that after and he said he kind of had to go for it,” said Kemp. “It kind of eased off the pressure for us, laid us back a little bit.”
The win pushes Medicine Hat to 16-7-1-0 while closing out their four-game homestand at 3-1-0-0.
Serhyenko settled for the loss despite stopping 27 in relief of Bilous, though the Raiders remain atop the WHL standings with a 16-5-3-1 record.
The Tigers return to action Friday in Moose Jaw against the Warriors.
