NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Beckett Langkow watches a puck bounce off his blocker in the second period of their 5-4 shootout loss to the Moose Jaw Warriors Friday night at Co-op Place.
The Medicine Hat Tigers lost a back and forth affair Friday night against Moose Jaw.
The Tigers trailed 2-0 after 20 minutes and a little more than 45 minutes later they picked up a point in a 5-4 shootout loss to the Warriors at Co-op Place.
The loss comes in first game of a home-and-home series with the Warriors, which shifts to Moose Jaw Saturday night. It also marks the seventh loss in a row for the Tigers.
Head coach Willie Desjardins said they had their chances to win and didn’t back down after trailing early.
“We never back down, we just haven’t. Maybe the games haven’t gone the way we wanted but it’s not like we back down,” Desjardins said. The guys played hard, that’s a good team they have a lot of high picks and our boys played hard tonight.”
Moose Jaw scored first 4:45 into the game with Harper Lolacher’s first Western Hockey League goal. He tipped in a point shot from Maximus Wanner. They added to their lead 4:36 later, with a power play goal from Eric Alarie. Denton Mateychuk and Brayden Yager had the assists.
Just 22 seconds after Alarie’s goal, Tigers defenceman Josh Van Mulligen dropped the gloves with Lucas Brenton for a tussle in the Medicine Hat end that brought the 2,528 fans in attendance to their feet. Desjardins says they don’t push fighting but said the 17-year-old held his own.
“He had thrown a hard hit, so it happens in the game sometime but it was good to see Josh battle and he hung in there,” Desjardins said. “It was good for a young guy to do that.”
The Tigers got on the board early in the second period on a back handed shot from Oasiz Wiesblatt. Brendan Lee and Andrew Basha had the assists on Wiesblatt’s first of the game. Moose Jaw answered back a little over six minutes later with a goal from Atley Calvert to re-establish their two goal lead.
Medicine Hat took the game’s momentum in the second half of the middle frame with two goals within three minutes of each other.
Tyler MacKenzie banged home a loose puck around Moose Jaw goaltender Connor Unger for his seventh goal of the year. Gavin McKenna and Brayden Boehm had the assists. Just 2:22 later, Wiesblatt scored his second of the game with a long distance shot that found the back of the net. Defenceman Pasha Bocharov had the assist on the forward’s eighth goal of the year. He says it was good to score when the team needed it and is excited for their rematch with the Warriors.
“We saw that we broke them down in the third and they were tired off our speed,” Wiesblatt said. “So we need to just get on them right away in Moose Jaw and just bring that same tempo that we did in the second and the third (periods).”
Moose Jaw took momentum 11:07 into the third with a top shelf goal from Jagger Firkus. But it was the Tigers who once again came back, with Bogdans Hodass scoring his third goal of the season to tie the game up at 4-4. Cru Hanas and Kurtis Smythe had the assists.
Both teams pushed in the third period but the game remained a draw and was sent to extra time. The Warriors had their opportunities but it was the Tigers who made the strongest push. They had three shots on Unger to the Warriors zero on Langkow and made a push with a late power play but could not find the back of the net. Wiesblatt said he thought it was the Tigers best overtime of the season, beating out their previous three trips, all losses.
The game headed to shootout where Firkus opened the scoring in the first round before Basha kept the Tigers alive with a second round goal. But Moose Jaw captain Denton Mateychuk scored the winner to give the Warriors the full two points on the night.
The Tigers (4-9-3-1) outshot Moose Jaw 38-27 wiht Langkow turning aside 23 shots and Ungar stopping 34. With the two game set heading to Moose Jaw for a 6 p.m. MST game, Desjardins says it will be a hard building to play in.
“We’re going to have to be really ready to skate because they’ll jump and they have some high end skill that can sqcore anytime,” Desjardins said. “We just have to make sure we’re in good positions and we’re ready to battle.”
