Tigers fall 6-3 in Red Deer to open weekend

By MEDICINE HAT NEWS on March 12, 2022.

It was a game of special teams that didn’t go the way of the Medicine Hat Tigers.

The Tigers allowed four power play goals in Red Deer against the Rebels who took Friday’s Central Division match up 6-3. Medicine Hat had two power play markers of their own but it wasn’t enough as they took their 40th loss of the season.

The Tigers entered Friday’s contest on the heels of a 7-3 loss to the CHL’s top ranked Edmonton Oil Kings Wednesday. Their last game against Red Deer was also fresh on their minds as the Rebels handed them a humbling 11-1 loss on Mar. 1.

Red Deer opened the scoring 5:30 into the game with Kalan Lind’s 14th of the season. Medicine Hat answered back 1:04 later when Carter Chorney took a pass from Owen MacNeil behind the net and curled around to put the puck past Connor Unger. Reid Andresen had the other helper on Chorney’s third of the year.

Logan Barlage gave the Tigers the lead three minutes later on the man advantage when he tipped in a point shot from Dru Krebs for his 14th of the campaign.

Red Deer went on a run after that. The Rebels scored four goals over the next 23 minutes as Lind scored right off a face-off in the first to tie the game up at 2-2 and Arshdeep Bains put the puck past Garin Bjorklund with nine seconds left in the frame to give them a 3-2 lead.

The 20-year-old Bains signed an NHL deal with the Vancouver Canucks Friday and sits among the top three in points in the Western Hockey League.

Ben King and Christoffer Sedoff scored for the Rebels, both on separate power plays eight minutes apart, to give Red Deer a 5-2 lead they carried into the second intermission. The Rebels doubled up the Tigers in shots in both frames, leading 29-11 after 40.

Both power plays were in action in the third as Kai Uchacz scored for the Rebels 4:33 into the frame before Gleb Ivanov answered back for the Tigers 3:18 later with his third of the year. Barlage and Tyler MacKenzie had the assists on Ivanov’s goal

Bjorklund made 34 saves in his 39th appearance of the season. Across the ice, Ungar turned aside 11 Tigers shots for his 20th win of the campaign. Red Deer picks up their 37th win of the year as they remain comfortably in second place of the Central and clinch a spot in the WHL playoffs.

The Tigers are back in action Saturday for the second game of the home-and-home series against Red Deer with a 7 p.m. contest at Co-op Place Place.