NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Beckett Langkow makes a save in the first period of a 6-4 loss Saturday night against the Swift Current Broncos at Co-op Place.
The Medicine Hat Tigers were on the wrong end of a comeback effort Saturday night.
After scoring four unanswered goals to take a 4-1 lead halfway through the game, the Tigers fell 6-4 to Swift Current following five straight Broncos goals. Medicine Hat entered the contest coming off a 3-2 win Friday night in Edmonton.
Associate coach Joe Frazer says he liked the start they had in the game but says they faltered once they had the lead.
“The first half of the game was good, we did a lot of really good things but we got away from it, with managing the puck in the O zone,” Frazer said. “We can’t give up outnumbered rushes and we gave up way too many against a team that has highly skilled forwards who can put the puck in the net. There was some really good parts of our game and then it faltered in the second half.”
Saturday night was the Tigers Nickelodeon Night for Children’s Miracle Network as they donned specialty Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle jerseys in front of 3,244 fans.
The Broncos opened the scoring with a goal from Medicine Hat product Caleb Wyrostok, who finished off a Broncos two-on-one with 3:35 left in the first period. But just under two minutes later the Tigers rattled off three goals in matter of 55 seconds for the 3-1 lead through 20 minutes.
Oasiz Wiesblatt wired home a shot on a two-on-none breakaway with Brenden Lee sending Wiesblatt the pass for his 16th goal of the season. Just 33 seconds later, Tomas Mrsic found Andrew Basha with a pass who then fed Dallon Melin for his eighth goal to gives the Tigers the lead. Then 22 seconds after the Melin’s goal, Dru Krebs rolled out of the corner and fired a shot past Broncos net minder Reid Dyck to make it 3-1 Tigers with 44 second left in the period. Basha and Melin had the helpers.
The Tigers carried the scoring into the second period when Brayden Boehm picked up a loose puck on a penalty kill and scored on a lone breakaway for his 16th goal of the year. It was all Broncos offensively after that, which is something Melin says the Tigers need to learn from.
“It’s something we’ve been struggling with, once we get the lead we kind of play to hold the lead rather than keeping it going and forechecking,” Melin said. “That’s what you have to do to win games, that’s how all good teams win.”
The Broncos offence was reignited by Rylan Gould’s, who scored his first of the year at 12:37 to cut the deficit in half. Swift kept coming as Josh Davies scored his ninth of the year on a Bronco power play to make 4-3 Tigers at 14:44.
In the third, the Broncos caught the luck off a redirected shot that went sky high before falling in front of the net to be knocked in by Matthew Ward, tying the game at 4-4. Both teams traded chances, including a robbery from Dyck stealing what would have been Gavin McKenna’s first WHL goal late in the period.
It was the Broncos again, making the most of their opportunities on the forecheck, as Ward scored his 16th to make it 5-4 Swift Current with 5:10 left in the game. Wyrostok finished things off for his 2nd of the night and 11th on the year on a empty net goal with 20 seconds left to make a 6-4 final for the Broncos.
Langkow made 26 saves and Dyck turned aside 29 for the win. The Tigers (14-19-5-1) are back in action Tuesday when they head to Swift Current for a rematch with the Broncos. That game starts at 6 p.m. MST, three hours after the WHL’s trade deadline. Langkow likes that their next chance at a win comes against the team who just beat them.
“Just getting a couple days here and then we’re going back at it again,” Langkow said. “These last six games are huge, the first two haven’t gone our way so we just have to make sure make sure we get points in those last six.”
