NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
A group of Medicine Hat Tigers surround Liam Ruck after the 16-year-old scored the 'Teddy Bear Toss' goal Saturday night. The Osoyoos, B.C. product scored in the first period of the 7-4 loss to the Edmonton Oil Kings at Co-op Place.
Teddy Bears flying was only a preview of a dramatic Saturday night at Co-op Place.
The Medicine Hat Tigers led 4-3 after 40 minutes, ultimately allowing five unanswered goals to fall 7-4 to the Edmonton Oil Kings in a contest full of vitriol. Two Oil Kings players ran into Medicine Hat net minder Jordan Switzer and Edmonton forward Roan Woodward took a chunk out of Gavin McKenna’s knee with a baseball-like swing.
Tigers head coach Willie Desjardins was succinct with his thoughts on the officiating.
“The refereeing was fine, the one call they missed, well, what do you do if you miss it,” Desjardins said. “You miss it, that’s just the way it is. We’ve all missed things. It was our game for us and we didn’t do a good job. They played hard.”
Saturday night was the Medicine Hat News Teddy Bear Toss game, the second time this weekend Medicine Hat played in a Teddy Bear Toss game. They lost 4-3 Friday at Lethbridge during the Hurricanes’ Holiday Season game.
Edmonton opened the scoring Saturday with a pair of goals in the first period.
Rylen Roersma scored 2:04 into the game on a power play. Adam Jecho and Gavin Hodnett had the assists.The Oil Kings made it 2-0 at 11:11 with a goal from Cole Miller, capitalizing on a turnover in the Medicine Hat end.
The Tigers unleashed the teddy bears at 14:07 with Liam Ruck finding twine, sending the 4,312 into a frenzy of throwing bears and winter clothes onto the ice. Markus Ruck and Oasiz Wiesblatt had the assists on Liam’s eighth.
“It’s unbelievable,” Liam said standing on the ice with bears flying. “We had a little bit of a slow start but to get that goal is nice and now we’ll keep going.”
They tied the game up 3:23 later, with Ryder Ritchie knocking in a rebound off a point shot from Veeti Väisänen. Josh Van Mulligen had the second assist.
Medicine Hat left the opening frame with a lead as Marcus Pacheco scored top shelf at the bottom of the circles to make it 3-2 with 48 seconds left in the period. Gavin McKenna and Jonas Woo had the assists. The assist gives McKenna a 14-game point streak.
The Tigers found the back of the net 2:26 into the middle frame. Markus Ruck sent a pass from his end to Liam Ruck who raced down the ice with Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll on a two-on-one. Liam passed to Gordon-Carroll at the net for the tap-in.
Edmonton drew within one at 5:10 with a rebound goal from Roan Woodward as a power play expired. Oil Kings’ forward Marshall Finnie crashed into Switzer at the end of a rush, knocking the Tigers’ net minder to the ice.
Woodward drew more attention later in the frame when he two-hand slashed McKenna in the knee in the Tigers’ end. The 16-year-old forward fell to the ice and was slow heading down the tunnel, eventually returning to start the third period. A scrum ensued to end the period that put Medicine Hat on a power play.
Edmonton rattled off a pair of goals in the third period for a 5-4 lead. Woodward scored shorthanded at 5:57 to tie the game, knocking in a puck sitting behind Switzer.
The Tigers’ net minder was almost knocked from the game for a second time, as Roersema skated right through the 17-year-old, hitting him in the head. The Tigers couldn’t capitalize on the resulting man advantage.
Edmonton grabbed the lead at 10:08 with a shot from Gracyn Sawchyn that snuck through Switzer and they finished with the 7-4 lead on an empty net goal from Miller and a goal from Joe Iginla.
“We played pretty good in the first, towards the end of the period we came back,” Desjardins said. “We started okay but we came back. We got the game in our hand, and then we just let them take it over.”
The contest ended with a flurry of scrums and fights, Tigers’ assistant coach Josh Maser and Oil Kings head coach Luke Pierce were assessed game misconduct penalties after both benches started jawing at one another.
Jordan Switzer made 23 saves, across the ice from him, Alex Worthington stopped 30 shots. The Oil Kings were 2-6 on the power play, Medicine Hat 0-7.
“That’s not what we wanted and all the guys know that,” Pacheco said. “We just have to be better for next week. We have four games in the week coming up before our break. So we have to come out strong and finish off even stronger.”
The Tigers (16-13-1) are off until Tuesday when they host the Saskatoon Blades, the first of four games in six days before the Holiday break.
Forward Andrew Basha returned to the lineup after missing 10 games. Defenceman Bryce Pickford was scratched with a lower-body injury, defenceman Matt Paranych was a healthy scratch. Medicine Hat also scratched defenceman Tyson Moss, a 17-year-old blue liner from the BCHL who signed with the WHL club before the weekend.
