NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Oren Shtrom gets tripped up on a breakaway in the first period of the Tigers 3-2 overtime loss Saturday night against the Moose Jaw Warriors.
James Tubb
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com
Twitter: ReporterTubb
The Tigers dropped their fifth game in a row Saturday night, losing 3-2 in overtime to the Moose Jaw Warriors.
Medicine Hat carried a 2-1 lead into the third period before the Warriors scored two unanswered goals to take the win in extra time for the second time this season. The Warriors beat Medicine 4-3 in overtime in Moose Jaw back on Oct. 29.
The Tigers were without their biggest offensive threat this season, Lukas Svejkovsky, who was scratched pre-game. Associate coach Joe Frazer said it was just a minor thing that kept the Tigers leading scorer out of the lineup and he should be back in the orange and black next Saturday when the Tigers host the Calgary Hitmen.
Frazer said he thought guys stepped up in the absence of Svejkovsky and the Tigers played good enough to win in Saturday’s loss.
“There’s a fine line between winning and losing in this league and unfortunately we had a bad break in the third when they tied it up,” Frazer said. “Then in overtime a guy made a nice play.”
Moose Jaw jumped out early in the first period with a goal from Ryder Korczak only 3:28 into the game, his sixth of the season.
The Tigers would tie the game up towards the end of the first on a Bogans Hodass shot redirected by Ashton Ferster, for his second on the season, with 4:18 left in the period. Carlin Dezainde would pick up the second assist on the goal as the period would end in a tie as the Warriors outshot Medicine Hat 13-7 in the first 20 minutes.
Medicine Hat went on the powerplay early in the second period and without Svejkovsky, Noah Danielson took the quarterback role on the man advantage. He took a pass from Hodass and scored over the left shoulder of Moose Jaw net minder Carl Tetachuk to put the Tigers up 2-1. Ferster had the second assist on Danielson’s fifth of the season as Medicine Hat jumped ahead three minutes into the second period.
Ferster, in his second season in the WHL and with the Tigers, said it was good to have some offense success in the loss.
“Our line was going pretty good tonight and the power play got rewarded so it was good,” Ferster said.
The Tigers would carry the offense for a majority of the period with Beckett Langkow bailing them out as the Warriors put a press on during a powerplay in the final 1:14 of the period. Medicine Hat ended the frame behind in shots, 22-18 but were still ahead 2-1 with 20 minutes left to play.
Both teams traded chances as the clock winded down on the third period as it appeared that the Tigers would get the 2-1 win. With less than three minutes left in the game, Jagger Firkus scored his seventh of the season for Moose Jaw to tie the contest up at 2-2. Neither team would add to their scores as for the second time against one another, the Tigers and Warriors would need extra time to decide a winner.
Denton Mateychuk scored his fifth of the season to ice the win for Moose Jaw, as they beat the Tigers in OT for the second time in two games this season.
Langkow, in his fifth start of the season, stopped 32 of the 35 shots he faced. His record sits at 2-1-1-1 in his second WHL season. The 18-year-old net minder said he felt pretty good about his game in the loss but sees room for more.
“I just have to find a way to make just one more save to give my team a chance there at the end,” Langkow said.
Moose Jaw’s Tetachuk, a four year veteran of the WHL, stopped 24 of the 26 Tigers shots he saw in his sixth win of the season.
Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary said he was happy with his team’s resiliency coming back in the third and thought his team helped to keep their goalie not as busy in the win.
“He made some key saves and that’s really the most important thing,” O’Leary said. “Whether it was breakaways or some extended d-zone shifts where we couldn’t quite get the puck out of the zone, he did a great job and that’s what you look for in a 20-year-old.”
Gleb Ivanov made his second start on the blue line for the Tigers since joining the club on Wednesday. The Russian defenceman is a 2020 Import draft pick of the Tabbies. Frazer said Ivanov looked really good in Saturday’s game and that once given a few more weeks to adjust and learn the structure, he’ll be ever better.
Medicine Hat falls two games under .500 with the loss as their record now sits at 4-6-2-1 on the year. Frazer said the Tigers will use the week off before their next game on Saturday to get better ahead of facing the Hitmen.
“Lots of time to workout, practice and get better and that’s just what we have to do,” Frazer said. “No one’s going to dig us out of this, we have to do it ourselves. Every guy in that room we just have to keep getting better.”
