Late penalty costs Tigers in loss to Oil Kings

By RYAN MCCRACKEN on March 9, 2021.

mccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken

RYAN MCCRACKEN

Twitter: MHNMcCracken

The Medicine Hat Tigers fell short of splitting a home-and-home set against the Edmonton Oil Kings with a 3-1 loss on Saturday evening at Co-op Place.

Oil Kings captain Scott Atkinson broke a 1-1 tie on a power play in the dying minutes of regulation to secure the victory and send Edmonton to 4-0-0-0 on the 24-game Western Hockey League season. Medicine Hat slipped to 2-2-0-0 with the setback.

“We shot a puck over the boards, they scored on the power play and that was the difference,” said Tigers head coach Willie Desjardins, whose squad managed just two shots in the third. “That’s a tough way when we played pretty hard. I thought we had more in the third, I didn’t think we played quite as well as we needed to in the third.”

After falling into an early two-goal deficit on Friday in Edmonton, the Tigers pounced on Saturday’s early lead when Lukas Svejkovsky found Ryan Chyzowski in the left circle for the captain’s second goal of the campaign.

Tigers goaltender Garin Bjorklund kept Medicine Hat in front with 11 first-period saves, but Edmonton broke through in the second.

After coming up empty on the evening’s first power play, the Oil Kings regained the offensive zone and Jalen Luypen snapped one through Bjorklund’s equipment to draw even with his third goal in as many games.

“We’re a deep team this year,” said Oil Kings forward and former Tiger Josh Williams. “For the first couple games our top line there was putting a lot of pucks in the net. Now we’re starting to see some of our depth guys starting to put the puck in.”

The Oil Kings carried the momentum into the third period and held Medicine Hat without a shot into the dying minutes of the frame. With time ticking off the clock, Tigers defenceman Cole Clayton flipped a puck over the glass from his own end and Atkinson cashed in with just 4:32 remaining.

Oil Kings forward Jake Neighbours then put the game away with an empty-netter in the final minute.

“We came down, we had a plan and we got the result we wanted,” said Williams. “It’s always fun coming back here. I miss the fans, they bring a lot of energy to the game.”

Tigers goaltender Garin Bjorklund did all he could with 25 saves in the loss.

“He was good all night,” Desjardins said of Bjorklund. “He’s a good goaltender, we know that. We know that’s the way he can play. I thought he made a number of big saves for us, and he’s good with the puck too.”

Sebastian Cossa stopped 18 shots for the win.

The Tigers are back in action for a three-game set against the Calgary Hitmen next weekend, starting Friday in Calgary at 7:30 p.m.