NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Zach Zahara reaches out with the blocker to make a breakaway save on Swift Current Bronco Luke Mistelbacher in the third period of a 4-3 OT loss Saturday at Co-op Place.
The Medicine Hat Tigers managed a point with a shorthanded lineup Saturday night.
Playing with nine forwards and eight defenceman the Tigers came back to force overtime, ultimately falling 4-3 to the visiting Swift Current Broncos.
The Tigers came into the game off a 4-1 loss Friday on the road to the Broncos. Associate coach Joe Frazer was proud of their effort coming off a loss.
“The structure was there, the compete was there and just night and day compared to last night,” Frazer said. “I’m just proud of how hard we worked and fought. It would have been nice to get the two points but to battle and tie it up there in the third to get a point, just proud of the guys effort.”
The Tigers were without forwards Oasiz Wiesblatt and Shane Smith who are labeled as day-to-day, Cayden Lindstrom who remains week-to-week and still miss Brayden Boehm who is out until next season.
Swift Current opened the scoring just over five minutes into the contest. Conor Geekie potted his 34th of the season to put the Broncos ahead 1-0 early.
Medicine Hat pushed, getting on the board later in the frame. Gavin Mckenna carried the puck into the Swift Current end, passing to Tomas Mrsic who sent it to McKenna to the left of the Bronco net and he one-timed his 29th of the season to tie it up at 1-1 with 5:23 left in the period. Jack Kachkowski had the second assist as it was all tied up after 20 minutes.
The Tigers grabbed a brief lead midway through the second period, electrifying the crowd of 3,764.
Bogdans Hodass threw a puck on net from the point that Nate Corbet redirected up and over Bronco net minder Reid Dyck for the 2-1 lead 12:11 into the second. Andrew Basha had the second assist on Corbet’s third of the season.
The Broncos stormed back, with two quick goals to lead 3-2 after 40 minutes.
Mathew Ward fired a puck toward the net that got caught up and went in off Zach Zahara’s pad to tie the game up 56 seconds after Corbet’s goal. With 2:35 left in the frame, Luke Mistelbacher broke in on a three-on-two and wired home the 3-2 goal.
The Tigers answered back early in the third on a power play. Hunter St. Martin redirected a shot from McKenna high in the slot for his 22nd of the season. Mrsic had the second assist.
Just a few minutes after St. Martin’s goal, Zahara took a slap shot from Geekie off the neck and was down on the ice for a couple of minutes. The 18-year-old eventually got up on his own and remained in the game, finishing his night with 33 saves. He wasted tested immediately, with a cross-crease stop on a Bronco scramble in front, keeping the game tied.
Zahara, sporting a nice welt on the side of his neck, says he was telling himself to just push through any pain to make the next save.
“All those bumps are going to happen along the way, you’ll get hit or something, you just have to bounce back and not let it affect you, just keep moving forward,” Zahara said.
Neither team found twine in the remains third period time, forcing overtime. Just 1:13 into the frame, a Tiger chance in the Swift Current end went the other way and Connor Hvidston scored the game winner, picking up a big two points and the Broncos fifth straight win.
Across the ice from Zahara, Dyck made 29 saves. The Tigers were one-for-two on the power play and stopped all four of the Broncos’ man advantages.
With the overtime loss, the Tigers (33-18-5-2) Central division lead is cut down to three points with the Broncos in second place with a game in hand. Both teams have two more games against one another.
The Tigers are in action again on Friday when they host the Edmonton Oil Kings in the first of six games in nine days.
