NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Prince Albert Raiders goaltender Max Hildebrand stretches out the pad to turn aside Medicine Hat Tigers forward Andrew Basha in a 2-1 shootout loss at Co-op Place on Friday.
A quiet Friday night in Medicine Hat went the other way for the Tigers.
The Tigers scored first before ultimately falling 2-1 in a shootout battle against the Prince Albert Raiders. Medicine Hat came into the contest off a 5-4 win Tuesday at Regina over the Pats.
Head coach Willie Desjardins says it was a close game that could have gone either way and wanted more from his team.
“We had a really good start to the game, we had some good chances,” Desjardins said. “Then I thought we had some good chances late but I thought the game could have gone either way. That was just a pretty close game.
“I didn’t take any of our guys played exceptional tonight, we just needed a little bit more from everybody.”
Medicine Hat opened the scoring early in the first, exciting the crowd of 3,016 with their lone goal on the night.
Andrew Basha scored 1:40 into the contest to make it 1-0 Medicine Hat. Hayden Harsanyi and Reid Andresen had the helpers on Basha’s 24th. They led the game in shots 11-4 after 20 minutes.
The Raiders got on the board early in the second on a mix up from goaltender Zach Zahara. The Tigers netminder went behind his net to play the puck and sent it along the boards where Oil Chenier picked it up and snuck it through Zahara to make it a 1-1 game. Medicine Hat remained ahead in shots after 40 minutes, leading 20-13.
Desjardins says the game came down to two, good teams battling it out and one coming out on top.
“They’re just a good team, this league is really tight, they got good goaltending and we had a couple chances and didn’t score,” Desjardins said. “It’s the way our league is, anybody can beat you on any given night. It’s a night we wish we would have got better but we didn’t.”
Both teams pushed in the third period, with Prince Albert outshooting the Tigers 6-4, neither team found twine to send the game to overtime. In the extra frame, the Tigers outshot the Raiders 3-1 but again neither team scored.
Aiden Oiring and Sloan Stanick each scored for the Raiders in the shootout and Gavin McKenna scored on his attempt. Prince Albert net minder Max Hildebrand turned aside Andrew Basha and Oasiz Wiesblatt in the shootout for the 2-1 Raider win, snapping their 10-game road losing streak.
Zahara made 19 saves on the night, across the ice from him, Hildebrand turned aside 26 shots.
The Tigers (32-17-3-2) host the CHL’s best Saskatoon Blades on Saturday at Co-op Place. Desjardins says they’ll need to be at their best, and better than Friday night, if they want a chance against the Blades.
“They have a really good team, they have lots of balance and we’re going to need a way better team game if we’re going to get some success tomorrow,” Desjardins said. “We better be ready for it.”
