Tigers battle but third-period goals cost

By James Tubb on February 16, 2022.

James Tubb
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com

It was an almost complete effort Wednesday night but not enough for the Medicine Hat Tigers.

The Tigers fell 4-1 to the Brandon Wheat Kings after being tied at 1-1 through 40 minutes. Tigers net minder Garin Bjorklund kept it tight with 37 saves, including 19 in the second period.

The goaltender said obviously he wanted to get the win but called Wednesday nights game a confidence booster for himself.

“My job is to shut the door and give my team a chance to win and I think for the most part I did so,” Bjorklund said. “Obviously I wish I didn’t get scored on a couple times in the third and we would’ve won the game but that’s just the outcome and we’ll be ready come next game.”

Tigers associate coach Joe Frazer said he didn’t think it was their best effort in the loss.

“…I thought Brandon, especially in the second period, controlled the game,” Frazer said. “I thought Garin was good, kept us in it. Saying that, we had a chance to win it but just couldn’t find a way to score that second goal and unfortunately the penalties caught up to us.”

Medicine Hat gave the Wheat Kings 10 power plays throughout the game and allowed them to capitalize on one of them. The Tigers came into the loss reeling after a 5-3 loss to the Edmonton Oil Kings last Saturday at home.

Brandon opened the scoring 3:27 into the contest as Riley Ginell picked up his 10th of the season to put the visiting Wheat Kings ahead early.

Medicine Hat pressured to even up the score quick after and did, a little over seven minutes later. Tigers rookie forward Andrew Basha deked his way through the slot before dishing the puck off to Teague Patton, who worked his way in-front of the net and scored on Brandon’s Ethan Kruger. Basha and Dru Krebs picked up the helpers on Patton’s 10th.

Patton gave all of the credit on his goal to Basha for setting him up.

“That was a nice play there by Bash to find me,” Patton said. “I was lucky I got that one in there… without him I wouldn’t have put that one in.

Other than the odd after-whistle skirmish, there was no more offence in the frame as the Wheat Kings outshot the Tigers 10-8.

Tigers forward Noah Danielson left the game early in the first and did not return for the rest of the contest. Frazer said he was getting looked at but would be questionable for Medicine Hat’s next contest.

Bjorklund was busy early in the second with the Wheat Kings getting multiple open breaks, but all were turned aside by the Grande Prairie product.

Tensions boiled over as the Tigers Logan Barlage and Brandon’s Brett Hyland dropped the gloves in a fight that brought the crowd of 1,782 Medicine Hat faithful to their feet. The game came to a halt soon after when Bjorklund was hit with a stick and could not get to his feet. After a pause, he was able to continue and made two saves immediately afterwards. 

The second frame continued to feature a lot of Bjorklund as he made multiple high-danger saves, including turning aside a three-on-none breakaway by the Wheat Kings.

Frazer said it was great to see Bjorklund have a night like he did and said he can be one of the beast goaltenders in the WHL  when he plays like he did.

Coming into Wednesday night’s game, Bjorklund had been pulled in four of his last five starts.

When asked what he’ll carry from the loss into his next start, Bjorklund said he’ll just try to play the same way he did Wednesday night.

“Just stay calm, collected in net and let the puck come to me,” Bjorklund said. “Play my game, bring that swagger on the ice and good things will happen.”

The first six minutes of the third period were a track meet as the Tigers and Wheat Kings traded chances up and down the ice. The Wheat Kings, however, capitalized on their sixth power-play chance, as Chad Nychuk fired a shot on net that floated over Bjorklund to put Brandon ahead with 13:42 left in the period. 

Medicine Hat appeared to score on an Oren Shtrom shot that was quickly waved off by the referee as every Tiger had their hands in the air celebrating the non-goal. 

The Wheat Kings added to their tally 10 minutes after Nychuk’s goal when Nate Danielson, brother of Tiger Noah Danielson, carried the puck into the Medicine Hat zone on a three-on-one and wired a shot past Bjorklund for his 14th of the season. 

Nychuk scored an empty netter minutes later and secured the win for the Wheat Kings, handing the Tigers their 30th loss on the season. 

Across the ice from Bjorklund, Kruger turned aside 23 of 24 shots he faced. Wheat Kings head coach Don MacGillivray said he didn’t like his team’s first period but was happy with the other 40 minutes.

“After that I thought we took over the game,” MacGillivray said. “We had probably 22 scoring chances in the second period, could’ve been a touchdown but their goalie was outstanding tonight, he was the difference… Then we got an ugly one to take the 2-1 lead then after that I thought we pretty solid.”

The Tigers are back in action Friday night for the second of four games in six days as they head to Swift Current to do battle with the Broncos, before returning home Saturday night when they host Corson Hopwo and the Lethbridge Hurricanes. Saturday’s game gets underway at 7 p.m.

Heading into Friday’s contest Frazer said he hopes the Tigers believe they can win and hopes the loss leaves a sour taste in their mouth.

“I hope it leaves enough of a sour taste in their mouth that we buy into the full 60 minutes,” Frazer said. “But it takes everybody, we need every guy to play their best if we are going to win. We’ll just keep reiterating that showing video and that’s our job.”

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