Tigers drop matinée game in Calgary 4-2

By James Tubb on January 2, 2022.

The Medicine Hat Tigers lost their mini three game series against the Calgary Hitmen Sunday afternoon.

The Tigers lost 4-2 in Calgary Sunday, dropping two of the three games they had against the Hitmen in the last seven days. The Tabbies beat the Hitmen 3-2 in Medicine Hat last Thursday and lost a close 3-1 battle in Calgary last Tuesday.

Medicine Hat came into Sunday’s affair on the heels of a 6-1 loss Saturday night to the Winnipeg Ice, who sit atop the Western Hockey League.

Calgary was scheduled to have a game on Saturday that was postponed due to the Lethbridge Hurricanes’ team activities being paused with 14 players on COVID-19 protocol.

It was a busy four goal first period at the Scotiabank Saddledome as Riley Fiddler-Schultz got the Hitmen on the board 11:43 into the first with his 15th goal of the season.

Less than a minute later, the Tigers answered back to even the game up at 1-1. Oren Shtrom scored his seventh of the season with Tyler MacKenzie and Andrew Basha picking up assists to reset the game at the 12:41 mark.

Medicine Hat took their first lead of the game 52 seconds later as Oasiz Wiesblatt scored his fourth of the season to put the Tigers ahead 2-1. Rookie forward Cru Hanas had the primary assist on Wiesblatt’s goal for his first WHL point. Dru Krebs picked up the second assist.

The Tigers were heading towards the first intermission with the lead on the road before Fiddler-Schultz scored his second of the game to tie the teams up at 2-2 with 1:21 left in the period. Calgary led the frame in shots 14-7 as the first ended in a tie.

It was a slow start to the second period as both the Tigers and Hitmen traded chances but couldn’t find the back of the net.

Calgary broke the stalemate of the game as Adam Kydd scored on a Hitmen man advantage to give them their second lead of the game 8:34 into the second frame. Just like the first period, Calgary was the last team to score in the period as the frame came to a close with the Hitmen outshooting the Tigers 14-9 in the second and ahead 3-2 with 20 minutes left in the game.

Blake Allan added an insurance marker for the Hitmen 7:34 into the third as Calgary increased their lead to 4-2 early in the third period.

Hitmen net minder Brayden Peters reached a milestone in the third period as he stopped a Corson Hopwo blast with 14:22 left in the game for his 2,000th save in his WHL career. Peters stopped 21 of the 23 Tigers shots he faced in the game for his 12th win of the season between the pipes for Calgary.

The Tigers pulled net minder Garin Bjorklund for the extra attacker with two minutes left but could not capitalize with the man advantage as the Hitmen held on for the 4-2 win in front of 4,445 fans in the stands.

Bjorklund turned aside 34 of the 38 shots he faced in the loss as his record sits at 4-14-2 on the season.

The Tigers record on the year is 6-21-3-1 as they get some time off before their next contest on Saturday. They will host the Moose Jaw Warriors at Co-op Place for a 7 p.m. contest before welcoming the Edmonton Oil Kings next Sunday for a 6 p.m. game.

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