Tabbies show character in snapping 16-game losing streak

By JAMES TUBB on December 14, 2021.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

It took almost two months but the Medicine Hat Tigers are back in the win column.

The Tigers won 4-3 in a shootout against the Red Deer Rebels Saturday night to snap their 16-game losing streak.

Medicine Hat scored two times in the third period to tie the game up en route to the victory. Prior to Saturday night’s contest against Red Deer, Medicine Hat’s last win came on Oct. 22, a 6-2 victory over the Prince Albert Raiders.

When asked Monday about the streak-snapping victory, Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins said it was a good win and the boys were excited on the bus ride back from Red Deer.

“It was great, they went through a tough time and it was funny, it’s not like guys didn’t play hard,” Desjardins said. “Our attitude was really good, I was impressed with the character of our team throughout it, because it’s so easy when you get in a streak like that to really get frustrated and point fingers. But the guys didn’t do that and they stayed together, they played hard and I was excited at the end when they won.”

The Tigers got on the board first with a power play goal from Oren Shtrom early in the first period. Saturday night marked the third game for Shtrom since Nov. 20, as he had been out of the lineup with an upper-body injury. Shtrom scored again halfway through the third period, his fifth of the year, and Ashton Ferster potted his seventh with the net empty to tie it late at 3-3.

Overtime solved nothing besides both sides having prime scoring chances, including a Rebels breakaway in the last 10 seconds that was foiled by a Lukas Svejkovsky tripping penalty, as the game headed to the shootout.

Svejkovsky followed up his penalty by scoring on his second-round shootout attempt, while all three Rebels missed on their chances to give the Tigers the win.

Garin Bjorklund made multiple prime time saves to pick up his third win of the season.

Medicine Hat’s chance to start a winning streak comes Friday when they head to Lethbridge for the first game of a home-and-home series with the Hurricanes ahead of the WHL’s Christmas break.

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