NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers' goaltender Evan May stares up a shot in the first period of the Tigers' 4-3 overtime loss Friday night at Co-op Place against the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
The Medicine Hat Tigers got a point Friday night.
The Tigers forced overtime late but couldn’t complete the full comeback as they lost 4-3 in the extra frame at Co-op Place against the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
Head coach Willie Desjardins says his team didn’t have any quickness from puck drop to the end of the night.
“We’re lucky to get a point, I though they outplayed us,” Desjardins said. “They had better structure than us, we weren’t quick. We rely on our quickness and we weren’t.”
The Tigers came into the contest off a 6-3 loss Wednesday night against the visiting Portland Winterhawks. As they have in most of their games this season, the Tigers opened the scoring.
Tyler MacKenzie finished off a pass from Andrew Basha on the rush for his ninth goal of the season to open the scoring at 4:13. Cayden Lindstrom had the second assist. Medicine Hat carried the 1-0 lead into intermission, with the Hurricanes outshooting the Tigers 11-9.
Lethbridge answered back just over the midway point of the second frame. The Hurricanes got on the board with a power play marker from Leo Braillard at the 11:24 mark. Medicine Hat regained the lead 2:15 later with another rush goal.
Oasiz Wiesblatt stopped up with the puck to let a defender keep moving in close to the net before dishing the puck to Reid Andresen who knocked it home for his fourth of the season. Hayden Harsanyi had the second assist, for his first Western Hockey League point. The game remained a 2-1 Tigers lead through 40 minutes where Lethrbdige continued to lead in shots, 25-15.
The Hurricanes rattled off two early goals in the third to take their first lead of the contest. Brayden Edwards held the puck down low on a power play and while making the motion to pass, slipped the puck five-hole on Evan May to tie the game up at 2-2 just 2:50 into the third. Defenceman Noah Chadiwck gave the Hurricanes the lead with a top-shelf shot from above the slot at the 6:17 mark.
Medicine Hat pushed through the third and the Hurricanes kept them at an arms reach. With a later power play and May on the bench for the extra attacker, Andresen fired a puck on net that Wiesblatt knocked in with 22.8 left in the game to tie it up at 3-3. Tomas Mrsic had the second assist on Wiesblatt’s third of the year, giving each team a point as the contest headed to overtime. Desjardins says it was important to get a point out of the loss but he says they need more.
“Whatever happened we were able to stay with it and battled to get a point and that was big,” Desjardins said. “We just have to have our lines going. For whatever reason, we’re missing a couple of guys and but that’s no excuse. You have to find ways and right now we’re not finding ways we’re not playing.”
Before the game could go to overtime, Medicine Hat defenceman Rhett Parsons was assessed a game misconduct and sent to the dressing room.
The Tigers didn’t register a shot in the extra frame and Tyson Zimmer redirected shot to call game and give the Hurricanes the edge in the first battle of Highway 3, winning 4-3.
May made 32 saves in his 14th start of the season, giving him a record of 6-4-2. Across the ice from him, Harrison Meneghin turned aside 22 of the 25 shots he faced for his ninth win on the season. Desjardins was complimentary of his goaltender after the game.
“He was good, he played really good, made some big saves for us and gave us a chance,” Desjardins said.
The Tigers (9-5-2) are back in action on Saturday when they host the Everett Silvertips for the middle game of a three-in-three and four game in five night series.
