NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers net minder Garin Bjorklund makes a chest-level save with Regina Pats forward Connor Bedard crashing the net during the first period of a game Tuesday evening at Co-op Place.
It took extra time but the Medicine Hat Tigers picked up the win Tuesday night.
Shootout goals by Andrew Basha and Logan Barlage propelled the Tigers 5-4 over the Regina Pats at Co-op Place for their 11th win of the season.
Tigers head coach Willie Desjardins said it was really good to get the comeback win and credited the Tigers fans for bringing the energy they did.
“I liked our fans too, they stayed with us,” Desjardins said. “We were up two, we seemed to collapse a bit in the second–we weren’t great, we just weren’t as good as we needed to be. The guys believed if we could get within one anything could happen.”
Medicine Hat entered Tuesday’s contest on the heels of a 6-2 loss to the Red Deer Rebels on Saturday. Tuesday night also marked the return of forward Brendan Lee to the lineup after being out with a lower body injury since Feb. 23.
The Tigers opened the scoring when Pasha Bocharov wired home a cross-ice pass from Teague Patton 7:06 into the game. Bocharov’s third of the season was the only offence of the first. Regina outshot the Tigers 11-8 but Garin Bjorklund shut the door and kept the Tabbies ahead.
Bocharov said it’s nice getting on the scoresheet but quickly gave the credit to the passer.
“Teaguer just gave me a beautiful seam pass so I owe it to him to bury that one,” Bocharov said. “It felt great and it felt great to get the boys going.”
Medicine Hat carried the momentum into the second and doubled up their lead 7:17 into the frame. Lee finished off a tic-tac-toe play from Logan Barlage and Tyler MacKenzie on the power play to put the Tigers ahead 2-0.
The second period was all Pats after Lee’s ninth goal of the season, as Regina scored four unanswered goals to take the lead. Cole Dubinsky scored his 16th of the year 32 seconds after Lee’s goal. After that, Connor Bedard put his stamp on the game. The WHL superstar scored his 39th of the season 48 seconds after Dubinsky’s goal, and assisted on two others — Tanner Howe’s 24th and Stanislav Svozil’ 10th — in a span of seven minutes to extend his point streak to 18 games and give Regina a 4-2 lead.
The Pats took that 4-2 lead into the third period after outshooting the Tigers 15-3 in the second.
Desjardins said the message in between the second and third period was to just get one goal and then worry about the second. He credited his net minder for being vocal as one of the older voices in the room. Bjorklund said he just wants to do whatever he can to help the team and cited former Tigers veterans for showing him the impact of an older voice.
“We have such a good group there’s a lot of guys that are talking,” Bjorklund said. “I remember when I was younger and hearing (Ryan) Chyzowski, (James) Hamblin and all these guys have their voice and being vocal in the room, showing their leadership. I was just so fortunate to learn from those guys and bring it this year.”
Medicine Hat’s penalty kill was effective early in the third when it killed off an Andrew Basha hooking penalty 4:45 into the frame. The Tigers special teams were perfect on the night, with the PK blanking all three Pats power play opportunities and the power play scoring on its lone chance in the second.
The Tigers got back on the board and brought the 2,144 Tigers faithful in attendance to their feet 7:49 into the third when Steven Arp redirected a point shot from local product Josh Van Mulligan to bring the orange and black within one. Defenceman Dru Krebs picked up the second assist on Arp’s third of the year.
With the net empty the Tigers kept the puck in the Regina end late in the game. With 1:24 left and after the Pats iced the puck, the Tigers called a timeout to draw up a play. After multiple chances on net the home team finally capitalized, with Lee firing home his second of the game to tie it up with 4.9 seconds left. Oren Shtrom and Krebs picked up the assists on Lee’s overtime-forcing goal.
Lee said he felt really good in his return from injury and credited his line mates, Barlage and Brayden Boehm. He said the power play goal in the first was something him and Barlage had been working on and described his late tying goal as lucky.
“I was just trying to get the puck on net in chaos, finally just ripped it and luckily it went in,” Lee said.
Bjorklund kept the Tigers in the overtime and they could not capitalize on a power play opportunity in the last minute, forcing a shootout.
Reid Andresen was stopped in the Tigers first attempt before Basha scored to give the Tabbies the lead that Barlage sealed with the winner. Down the ice Bjorklund shut the door in the shootout as Bedard missed wide and Svozil was stopped with the pad.
The Grand Prairie product said he’d prefer to win a game in regulation but loves winning in the shootout as well. Bjorklund said if Barlage didn’t score the winner he would have shut the door for the victory.
“If Bar didn’t score there, you knew I was going to fishin’ after but I am happy he did,” Bjorklund said.
He made 40 saves in his 41st appearance of the season. The Tuesday night win gives Medicine Hat a record of 11-41-3-1.
The Tigers are back in action Friday in Swift Current for the first of a home-and-home series with the Broncos that returns to Co-op Place on Saturday night.
When asked how the Tigers can bring a little more consistency to their game Desjardins said they have to follow their structure and not get deflated when they give up a goal.
“We are a team that we get deflated when we get scored on and we get excited when we score, that’s the sign of a young group, it’s good and it’s bad,” Desjardins said. “Getting deflated is bad, but getting excited is good. It’s something that you have to work through, you jut have to work through and learn. Our goal is just to make sure we keep getting better. We have some time ahead of us that we have to get better and we have to use this year to make us as ready as we can for next year and part of that is learning to win.”
