NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Teague Patton admires his pass accross the ice in the first period of the Tigers 2-0 loss to the Swift Current Broncos Saturday night at Co-op Place.
Saturday night was not a busy one for the Co-op Place goal judges.
Swift Current net minder Isaac Poulter pitched a 19 save shutout as the Broncos blanked the Medicine Hat Tigers 2-0 at home to take the season series 6-1-1-0.
The Tigers entered Saturday night’s contest on the heels of a 5-1 loss in Swift Current against the Broncos Friday. Andrew Basha had the lone Tigers goal in the loss, his third of the campaign.
Tigers associate coach Joe Frazer said Swift Current deserves credit for their play over the weekend.
“They’re fast, as soon as they get it they are taking off and they have some quick forwards,” Frazer said. “That’s a good team over there.
When asked, Frazer agreed the lack of offence came from the Tigers looking for the perfect play, especially when it came to the rush.
“I thought we did a good job of creating turnovers in the neutral zone and then we were on the attack and I thought it was just making one too many passes off the rush instead of driving it wide getting a guy going through the middle and getting pucks on net,” Frazer said. “We have to simplify it off the rush.”
Swift Current opened the scoring 3:50 into the game when Josh Filmon re-directed a pass from Matthew Ward past Tigers net minder Garin Bjorklund. That was the only offense of the frame as the Broncos outshot the Tigers 16 to 8 to lead 1-0 after 20 minutes.
The second period was all Bjorklund and the Tigers penalty kill. Medicine Hat killed off four penalties in the frame and Bjorklund made multiple high danger saves to keep the Tigers within one of the Broncos. Swift Current’s PK was effective in the period as well, killing off Medicine Hat’s lone power play. Just like the first frame, the Broncos led the second in shots 10-2 as they carried their 1-0 lead into the third period.
Frazer said he though the PK was really good and competed hard to kill off all four penalties in the frame.
“That’s a lot of hard work, they were blocking shots, I think they only had four or five shots on the power plays there,” Frazer said. “It was a great job killing and then obviously Garin made some huge saves on those kills too. All around the penalty killing unit was good.”
Bjorklund made 27 saves in the loss. When asked if there’s any frustration when the Tigers can’t muster any offence in front of him, the net minder said it’s a team effort.
“Sometimes I have to be better, sometimes the forward and d-men in front of me have to be better,” Bjorklund said. “But overall it’s a team effort and we’re a whole group here, we’re a family….this week we’ll be filling the net in practice and be ready to go next weekend.
Logan Barlage took a puck to the face halfway through the second and was able to continue playing after spending a couple seconds hunched over. When asked how his teeth and face were, Barlage said with a smile that everything was all good and that he’s had facial injuries before so he knows what it feels like.
The 20-year-old said he didn’t think the scoreboard did not dictate the game for the Tigers.
“I thought we played hard and had lots of chances, I think it just comes down to us not giving up a goal in the third and finding a way to put one in the net at the end of the game,” Barlage said. ”
Both the Tigers and Broncos traded chances early in the third but it was Swift Current that got on the board first. Connor Hvidston picked up a Tigers turnover in the slot and fired a shot past Bjorklund to propel the Broncos ahead 2-0 4:01 into the frame.
The Tigers had their chances in the third but just could not mount any offence off of the rush. They had two power play opportunities in the period, including a chance in the last two minutes of the game with the goalie pulled; but the Tabbies just could not find the back of the net.
Swift Current held on for the win and a much needed two points in their hunt for the Eastern Conference’s final wildcard spot. With the win, the Broncos take hold of that final wildcard spot, leading the Prince Albert Raiders by one point. The loss gives the Tigers a record of 11-43-3-1.
When asked how much the Broncos being in a playoff hunt and the Tigers looking towards the future played into the weekend’s losses Frazer said it was something they brought up.
“You could tell they were pretty excited last night, this is a huge weekend for them in the playoff race,” Frazer said. “We knew that too, we addressed that. I thought our guys battled hard, it’s not that our guys didn’t play hard Swift Current is just a good team. They’re fast and I thought we were right there but unfortunate we couldn’t get one by their goalie.”
Medicine Hat has a break in the schedule as their next game is not until Friday when they hit the road for Red Deer before hosting the Calgary Hitmen next Saturday at Co-op Place.
Frazer said it’ll be nice to get some time off and said the Tigers will get a couple hard workouts in ahead of the weekend.
“Get a couple battle and compete practices in and jsut get ready for the weekend because we have Red Deer and Calgary,” Frazer said. “We know how good Red Deer is, they’ve played us hard the last couple games so we have to be ready for them and a Calgary team that we haven’t seen in a while. It’s exciting to get a week to work on things.”
