NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Jordan Swizter slides to his right to get in front of a rebound in the first period of a 4-3 overtime loss Saturday at Co-op Place to the Saskatoon Blades.
The Medicine Hat Tigers took a knick out of the Blades but couldn’t dull Saskatoon’s Saturday night.
Medicine Hat overcame three single-goal tallies to force overtime, eventually falling 4-3 to the Blades who beat the Tigers for the 15th game in a row. The Tigers came into the game off a 3-2 loss at Edmonton to the Oil Kings on Friday, finishing a four game in five night stretch with a 1-2-1 record.
“It was a tough game for us, we had four-in-five and really tough travel, it’s a tough game last night and all our games have been closed,” Head coach Willie Desjardins said. “It’s not like in any of those games, we’ve had time. The boys played hard, lots of good things, Switzer was really good. Our young line is playing great, there’s lots of good things.”
Jordan Switzer, making a second start in a row, had 27 saves in the loss Saturday. It’s the first time he’s started back to back games in the WHL, taking over the crease with 20-year-old Harrison Meneghin out of the lineup with a lower body injury. Switzer liked his team’s effort in the game, coming off the road.
“That’s a team that really knows how to win, so to push them over time, it’s a good feeling,” Switzer said. “We had a little bit more tonight, it was a tough trip coming back from Edmonton last night, but you always want to win.”
Neither team scored in the first period but the Blades were a blocker away from opening the score.
In the second half of the first period, the Blades pushed in the Tigers end. Switzer was knocked over by a Saskatoon skater as other worked around the net with the puck. The 17-year-old stretched his blocker out and stopped the puck on the goal line.
The play was reviewed but the save ultimately remained. Saskatoon outshot Medicine Hat 12-8 in the frame. The second period saw a quartet of goals.
Saskatoon capitalized on a power play 4:26 into the middle frame. Tyler Parr had the puck near the point and he sent a pass to Rowan Calvert at the net for the tap-in. Brandon Lisowsky had the second assist on Calvert’s 11th.
Medicine Hat responded less than a minute later.
Bryce Pickford, who was in the box for the Blades’ power play, blasted a shot from the point that found twine behind starter Evan Gardner. Oasiz Wiesblatt had the lone assist on Pickford’s 10th of the season. He’s the first WHL defenceman to reach double digits in goals this season.
Less than 10 minutes later, Saskatoon made good on a five-on-three power play. Wiesblatt was shoved into Gardner and handed a goaltender interference penalty at 11:47. He received a 10-minute misconduct for arguing the call.
Just 43 seconds into that penalty kill, Veeti Väisänen in his first game back after missing a pair with injury, took a high sticking penalty for the Blades’ two-man advantage. They capitalized a minute later, with Lisowsky clearing up a rebound for his 11th. Calvert and Ben Richie had the assists.
For the second time in the period, the Tigers answered back. Ryder Ritchie broke in on a pair of Blades defenders and scored on Gardner for the 2-2 tie at 14:55. Gavin Mckenna and Pickford had the assists on Ritchie’s third of the season.
The assist extends McKenna’s point streak to nine game and gives Ritchie points in all five games since returning from injury.
Saskatoon led in shots 24-16 after 40 minutes.
The Tigers had an early power play in the third. After a pair of blocked shots in the Blades end, Calvert ended up with the puck on a shorthanded breakaway. Switzer made the stop, keeping it a 2-2 game for a brief period.
Saskatoon grabbed a 3-2 lead off a series of bounces.Ben Sanderson fired a shot from the point that was pushed along by Parr, before Ben Riche chipped it up and over Switzer for his 15th and the 3-2 lead 4:55 into the third.
The Tigers tied the game up at 3-3 with their youngest line.
After sustained pressure in the offensive end, Markus Ruck sent a pass from the corner through the slotto Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll for the one-time blast. His third of the season tied the game up at 11:23
As the clock ticked down towards overtime the Tigers had a final chance late for the win. The puck floated from the Tigers’ end into Saskatoon’s with a Blades’ defender and Tigers’ forward Mat Ward chasing after it. Gardner came out of his net to play the puck and Ward blocked it, firing the loose puck wide of the net to the dismay of the 3,703 in attendance.
Saskatoon led the Tigers in shots in regulation 30-21 as the two teams picked up a point ahead of overtime. The visiting Blades needed only one shot in the extra frame to call game.
Parr carried the puck up the ice out of the Blades’ end. He sent a pass to Calvert before the neutral zone who dished it back to him after skating across the blue line. Parr glided with the puck and scored blocker side on Switzer 1:24 into the overtime for the win.
Across the ice from Switzer, Gardner made 18 saves for his 11th win of the year. The Blades were 2-5 on the power play, Medicine Hat 0-2. The Tigers narrowly won the face-off battle 30-29.
The Tigers (13-11-1) are off until Friday when they host the Brandon Wheat Kings.
