Tigers fall behind early and lose Saturday night

By James Tubb on February 5, 2022.

An early four goal deficit was too steep for a Medicine Hat Tigers comeback Saturday night.

The Tabbies gave up four to the Moose Jaw Warriors in the first period and could not make a comeback as they fell 5-2.

Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins said he thought the Tigers had a good opening five minutes of the game but said they don’t have room for error when it comes to scoring.

“We don’t score easy, we had chances but we just didn’t score,” Desjardins said. “If we score easy it’s a different game but we don’t and that’s hard for us.”

The Tigers came into Saturday’s game on the heels of a 6-2 loss in Edmonton against the Oil Kings on Wednesday. They were supposed to be in Manitoba for three games over the weekend, one against the Brandon Wheat Kings and two against the Winnipeg Ice.  That trip was postponed Monday due to capacity restrictions in the province of Manitoba.

The first frame was all Warriors as they jumped ahead quickly with three goals in the first 10 minutes of play. Majid Kaddoura opened the scoring 2:07 with his fourth of the season and Ryder Korczak followed up 3:52 later with his 17th of the year.

Eric Alarie notched his 13th a little under four minutes later to give Moose Jaw their three goal lead. The game went without offense for only 6:18 before Moose Jaw capped off the period with a goal from Marek Howell to give them a four goal lead after 20 minutes.

Desjardins said the Warriors are too good of a group to not be ready at the start of the game and said that’s a learning opportunity for the young Tigers.

“It’s a lesson learned but you can’t keep learning it, there has to be a point of time where you quit learning,” Desjardins said.

Medicine Hat came out of the intermission with energy and were rewarded for it early.

Bryaden Boehm carried the puck into the Moose Jaw end and fired a difficult angle shot just above the goal line and banked the puck in off Warriors net minder Jackson Unger, to get the Tigers on the board.

D-men Reid Andresen and Pasha Bocharov picked up the assists on Boehm’s fifth of the season that got the Tabbies into the game. The Tigers had chances throughout the frame but could not beat Unger for the second time as the period came to a close.

Medicine Hat controlled the pace outshooting Moose Jaw 14-6 in the period but still trailed on the scoreboard 4-1 and had 28 seconds left to kill on a too many men penalty heading into the third.

Boehm said his sharp angle goal caught the goalie off guard and said he was just trying to get the puck on net.

The Nanaimo product said getting on the score sheet with a goal was a long time coming but said you just have to keep going.

“It was a good game, it sucks that we lost but you have to focus on the positives at times and just keep going,” Boehm said.

The Tigers killed the rest of the penalty and traded chances with the Warriors throughout the third.

A little over six minutes into the frame Medicine Hat brought themselves within two on Teague Patton’s eighth of the season.

Patton picked up the puck in the slot and fired it past Unger to get the crowd of 1,793 Tigers faithful to their feet. Boehm and Oasiz Wiesblatt had the helpers on the goal as Medicine Hat continued their comeback effort.

Owen MacNeil was called for hooking after being dragged down entering the Moose Jaw end to give the Warriors their fourth power play of the game halfway into the third.

The Tigers looked as if they were going to kill off the penalty with multiple block shots and saves by net minder Beckett Langkow but the Warriors struck with three seconds left. Jagger Firkus wired his 26th of the season past Langkow to extend Moose Jaw’s lead to 5-2 in the last six minutes of the game.

Langkow said they all battled on that penalty kill and commended his d-men, Daniel Baker and Rhett Parsons, who were on for the entire kill and blocked multiple shots each.

Moose Jaw’s lead was too much to overcome as the clock hit zero handing the Tigers their 28th loss of the season. Their record sits at 9-28-3-1 on the campaign.

Langkow turned aside 25 of the 30 shots he faced in the loss. The net minder said he was really proud of the Tigers effort in the last 40 minutes of the game. He said he approached the second and third periods as a reset from the four goal first frame.

“Every period is a new period, doesn’t matter what happens before because even if you are having a good game they can score three goals in a minute,” Langkow said. “So you just try to reset in between every period and play the game like it’s 0-0.

Across the ice, Unger stopped 29 of the 31 Tigers shots he faced to pick up his fifth win of the season and give Moose Jaw their eighth win in a row.

Warriors head coach Mark O’Leary said he was glad to pick up the win but said they were the second best team over the last 40 minutes.

“Med Hat was hard on pucks, they made life difficult for us, they did a really good job of just being on the right side of pucks and doing things right,” O’Leary said. “…We got saves when we needed it and big goals when we needed it as well.”

Medicine Hat has a week to practice before their next contest as they don’t play again until next Saturday when they host the Central division leading Edmonton Oil Kings.

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