NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Tomas Mrsic makes a pass in the slot in the first period of a 5-2 loss against the Swift Current Broncos on Tuesday at Co-op Place.
The Medicine Hat Tigers got beat in all areas of the game Tuesday night.
Head coach Willie Desjardins says they didn’t play their game as they lost 5-2 against the Swift Current Broncos at Co-op Place.
“Our guys were excited, maybe too excited and hadn’t been in that spot before and we just didn’t play our best game,” Desjardins said. “Have to give them credit, we wanted it and they just didn’t give it to us.”
The Tigers entered the game sitting in seventh place of the Eastern conference with 57 points. The loss puts them in eighth place, behind the Broncos who now have 57 points. Medicine Hat came into the game off a 7-3 victory against the Kamloops Blazers on Saturday.
“We didn’t play the same way we did against Kamloops, we didn’t play like we did against Red Deer, we were probably playing too much offence, not enough defense,” Desjardins said. “When we play our best we play well defensively and then we turn that into chances and we didn’t do it tonight.
“Saying that, Swift did lots of good things, it gave them chances and in the end, they beat us and you have to give them credit.”
The Tigers had a chance in the first minute of the game with a loose puck in Reid Dyck’s crease but it was Swift Current who opened the scoring at 4:12. Drew Englot found the back of the net with a power play goal, his sixth marker of the year.
The Broncos carried the momentum throughout the period as they scored again late in the frame. Owen Pickering fired a shot five hole on Tigers net minder Beckett Langkow with 1:19 left in the period to put Swift Current ahead 2-0 after 20 minutes.
Swift Current continued their offence, scoring twice in the second period. Josh Filmon continued his onslaught against Medicine Hat, scoring a power play goal at the 4:09 mark. A little over two minutes later, with a delayed penalty on the Tigers, Grayson Burzynski found the back of the net for a 4-0 lead.
The Tigers got on the board late in the period with a tip-in goal from Tyler MacKenzie on a power play with 48 seconds left in the period. Tomas Mrsic had the shot from the point that MacKenzie redirected for his 16th goal of the year, Bogdans Hodass had the second assist.
MacKenzie says they never gave up but have to be better in their own end if they want success.
“We have to be better defensively, we talked about it before the game and we didn’t execute,” MacKenzie said. “We were shooting pucks and we have to be responsible and accountable for our D-zone before we go on offence. But I liked how we didn’t quit. Throughout the whole game we kind of stuck with it, we never gave up which is good to see.”
The Broncos stole back the momentum early in the third period with their third power play goal of the game, as Filmon found the back of the net for the second time, putting them ahead 5-1 only 3:18 into the frame.
Medicine Hat got one more on the board in the last half of the third period, Oasiz Wiesblatt got the puck in behind the Swift Current defenders and scored his 22nd of the year. Josh Van Mulligen and Andrew Basha had the assists on the 5-2 goal.
Langkow made 13 saves in his 45th start of the season. Across the ice from him, Dyck turned aside 32 Tigers shots for the win.
Medicine Hat is back in action against the top team in the Canadian Hockey League as they host the Winnipeg Ice on Wednesday.
“They’re an awfully good team and they’ll make you pay if you’re not playing good defence,” Desjardins said. “They have lots of speed, they can jump on everything, so we’re going to have to play great defensively and capitalize on our chances.”
