Streak up to six wins

By RYAN MCCRACKEN on March 11, 2020.

NEWS PHOTO RYAN MCCRACKEN
Medicine Hat Tigers centre Elijah Brown tries to jam in a rebound during a Western Hockey League game against the Red Deer Rebels at the Canalta Centre on Tuesday, March 10, 2020.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken 1

The Medicine Hat Tigers swept a five-game homestand while pushing their winning streak to six by defeating the Red Deer Rebels 4-3 in overtime on Tuesday night at Canalta Centre.2

Ryan Chyzowski scored less than two minutes into sudden death to shake off a late scare and give the Tigers (41-19-2-1) four points of breathing room on the Lethbridge Hurricanes (37-19-2-5) for second in the Central Division with just five games left on the schedule. The Highway 3 rivals will likely meet up in the first round of the playoffs, but not before closing out the regular season with a home-and-home set that could very well determine who will start the series on home ice.3

“At this point we’re fighting for that home ice advantage,” said Tigers captain James Hamblin. “That’s huge in the playoffs. Being behind the crowd here is exactly what we want going in, so we’re watching (the scoreboard) but at the same time we’re just trying to focus on ourselves.”4

Red Deer rode a lucky bounce to Tuesday’s early lead when Josh Tarzwell rang a shot off the end boards and watched it rebound off Hat netminder Garin Bjorklund and into the net.5

The Tigers earned an opportunity to strike back a few minutes later when Ben King was booked for roughing and Elijah Brown cashed in by jamming in a second-chance rebound.6

“It’s too bad, I’m sure Garin would have liked to have that one back but you’ve just got to put that one behind you,” said Brown. “It was a good job by the power play coming out and getting one for the team. That was big. I know our coach has been talking about special teams and how big it’s going to be going into playoffs.”7

The Rebels got a chance of their own with Dylan Plouffe in the bin for the final two minutes of the first, but Chyzowski took the puck the other way and beat Red Deer’s Ethan Anders from a sharp angle to take a 2-1 lead into the break.8

The Tigers picked up another power play early in the second, but Anders stymied the offence then Rebel blueliner Joel Sexsmith snuck a screened shot past Bjorklund to tie things back up shortly after the penalty expired.9

“We knew it was going to be a tough game, Red Deer always plays us hard,” said Tigers assistant coach Joe Frazer. “They’re always physical. They always play you hard, they’re always mean in front. They play that playoff-style of hockey all season long so it’s great to play them. Those are the types of games we want before playoffs to get us ready.”10

Medicine Hat’s power play unit got another crack late in the middle frame, and this time Cole Sillinger converted – chipping in a cross-crease pass from Brown to give the Tigers a narrow edge after outshooting Red Deer 32-18 through 40 minutes. Brett Kemp picked up his third helper of the night with the goal’s second assist.11

Red Deer was given another chance to draw even in the third when Corson Hopwo was charged with a goaltender interference call – drawing a chorus of boos from the crowd of 3,553. While the Rebels were unable to generate any offence on the advantage, Arshdeep Bains struck five minutes later to set up overtime.12

“I think for us, being able to come back in the third, even after all those shots, I was really proud of the group,” said Rebels captain Ethan Sakowich. “I really liked our effort. That’s obviously a really good team over there.”13

Red Deer pushed the pace into overtime, but Chyzowski stole away the victory with a sudden-death snipe.14

“I think it was just a matter of playing the full 60 and just wearing them down,” said Chyzowski, adding Lukas Svejkovsky did the heavy lifting with an assist on the game-winner. “I just saw him going up the ice and wanted to catch up and join the rush. He made a good play to drop it there.”15

Bjorklund collected the win with a 21-save performance.16

Anders stopped 42 shots in the loss, dropping Red Deer to 23-33-3-3.17