NATHAN REITER PRINCE ALBERT DAILY HERALD
Medicine Hat Tigers net minder Evan May watches the play in the corner in the first period of their 5-4 loss Saturday night in Prince Albert against the Raiders.
The Medicine Hat Tigers lost a wild game Saturday night.
The Tigers and Prince Albert traded goals but it was the Raiders coming out on top as Medicine Hat lost 5-4 to wrap up their Saskatchewan road trip with one of a possible four points. They lost in overtime Friday against the Saskatoon Blades.
Medicine Hat opened the scoring in the first period with Shane Smith’s seventh goal of the season 1:13 into the contest. Dru Krebs had the only assist. The rest of the period was spent playing special teams for the Tigers as they had six minor penalties, a Kurtis Smythe fighting major and a 10-minute misconduct penalty. Medicine Hat ended up with 11 penalties on the night, allowing two power play goals. They went 1-for-5 on their power play opportunities.
Just before the first period ended Tigers forward Oasiz Wiesblatt was hit on the knee by a Raider defender and had to be helped off the ice. He did not return to the game.
Medicine Hat worked a 5-on-3 penalty kill to start the second period and after killing it, Brendan Lee found the back of the net to extend their lead. Owen MacNeil and Andrew Basha had the assists on Lee’s 12th of the season.
The Raiders answered back late in the second with goals from Sloan Stanick and Evan Herman, his coming on the power play, in the last two minutes to tie the game up at 2-2. They carried that momentum into the third and Landon Kosior scored a power play marker to give Prince Albert their first lead of the game.
Less than a minute after Kosior’s goal, Tyler MacKeznie jammed a puck past Tikhon Chaika for a power play tying goal. Reid Andresen and Basha had the assists on MacKenzie’s eighth.
But it was Prince Albert once again scoring in bunches, as Stanick found the back of the net at the 10:56 mark before Herman scored at 16:53 for the two-goal lead. Cayden Lindstrom scored with the goalie pulled in the final second of the game but the Tigers could not mount the full comeback.
Evan May turned aside 24 shots in his fourth start of the season and as a Tiger, while across the ice Chaika stopped 22 shots.
The Tigers (6-10-4-1) are back in action Wednesday when they host the Edmonton Oil Kings for a 7 p.m. contest at Co-op Place.
