NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Oasiz Wiesblatt keeps his eye on the puck before a faceoff in the first period of the Tigers 4-1 loss to the Prince Albert Raiders Monday.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Nothing is coming easy for the Medicine Hat Tigers right now.
The Tigers were held to one first period goal Monday in their 4-1 loss to the Prince Albert Raiders, their seventh defeat in a row.
Tigers head coach Willie Desjardins said he thought they played hard in the loss and that the game could’ve gone either way.
“The first two periods were even, could have gone either way,” Desjardins said. “Then they got a break off a rush and got up one and got one on a power play. That’s the way it goes, you have to play 65 minutes, you have to be ready every shift.”
Medicine Hat came into Monday afternoon’s contest on the heels of their sixth straight loss, a 2-1 defeat Saturday at Co-op Place against the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
Desjardins said it’s hard losing because they put so much into their games and said the Tigers haven’t quit, which makes the losing harder.
“You can say, ‘I don’t care if we lose or not,’ then it doesn’t hurt because you don’t care. That’s one choice you have and where you see teams quit,” Desjardins said. “Every night we play hard and we don’t quit, so that means every night it hurts to lose. Every night it bothers us. Every night. So, what do you want to do with that? Well your only choice is to get better, you have to get better. If you don’t want to hurt like that every night then you have to find a way to get better so you don’t. So far this year we haven’t found that way to get better enough to win.”
Owen MacNeil opened the game’s scoring with a power play marker 7:08 into the contest.
MacNeil tapped in a Daniel Baker point shot for his seventh of the season to put the Tigers ahead early. Dru Krebs picked up the second assist on MacNeil’s marker.
MacNeil said it was nice to get on the board with a goal but said it doesn’t mean much coming in a loss.
The Raiders tied the game up a little over six minutes later with a power play goal from Sloan Stanick. That goal was the last of the first frame as the Raiders led in shots 7-6 after 20 minutes of action.
The second period went by without any scoreboard changes as both the Tigers and Raiders traded chances and power play opportunities. Besides the Tigers Brayden Boehm and Ozzy Wiesblatt of the Raiders dropping the gloves, the period went by with the Tabbies leading in shots, 10-8.
After more than 30 minutes without a goal, the Raiders struck to pick up the lead in the third. Reece Vitelli deked out net minder Garin Bjorklund to put Prince Albert ahead 2-1.
Vitelli followed it up eight minutes later with a power play goal from the slot to give the Raiders a two-goal lead in the last half of the third while Keaton Sorensen buried an empty-net goal to cement the 4-1 win for Prince Albert.
Boehm was guided to the locker room in the final minute of the contest after taking a high hit from P.A. defender Trevor Thurston. He received two five-minute penalties and a game misconduct.
Asked about his thoughts on the hit, Desjardins said it’s up for the league to look at.
Between the pipes for the Tigers, Bjorklund stopped 19 of the 22 shots he faced in the loss, as the Raiders Tikhon Chaika turned aside 23 of the 24 Tigers shots he faced to pick up his 12th win of the year.
The Tigers look to bounce back from their current rut as they head to Regina on Wednesday to take on Connor Bedard and the Pats.
Asked what the Tigers can learn from Monday’s loss, Desjardins pointed to the untimely penalty giving the Raiders a power play goal in the third and said they need to capitalize when they get chances.
“… you just have to stick with it, and what do you learn? You learn how hard it is to win,” Desjardins said. “You learn that every shift is key that if you are ever going to win you have to be good every shift. It’s not be good half the time, it’s be good every shift. There’s lessons in there always and smart people learn and if you don’t learn then you’re not going to be successful.”
