NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
A puck sizzles past Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Jordan Switzer and off the cross bar in the first period of a 4-3, overtime loss Saturday at Co-op Place to the Everett Silvertips.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com
The Medicine Hat Tigers came back but couldn’t complete the comeback Saturday night.
The Tigers overcame a 3-1 deficit with the Everett Silvertips before falling 4-3 in a back and forth overtime at Co-op Place. Medicine Hat came into the contest off a 5-4 overtime loss Friday in Red Deer to the Rebels.
“They have a really good hockey team, it was a tough game for both teams,” head coach Willie Desjardins said. “I liked the way we played though, we responded. They got ahead and we responded. We played hard.”
Everett is 30-0-1 when they score first this season, leading the WHL with 45 wins and 93 points. Desjardins saw a game that could have gone either way.
“We could have scored on our power play, we had three great looks on that power play and they didn’t go, we had a couple looks in overtime too, that didn’t go,” Desjardins said. “They’re a good hockey team and we just have to keep working.”
The Silvertips opened the scoring with a pair of goals.
Landon DuPont scored with a shot from the point 2:41 into the game for his 15thof the season.
They struck again at 10:58, Carter Bear scored his first of the nightwith a tap-in at the front of the net.
The Tigers responded while shorthanded. Markus Ruckcarried the puck up ice and inside the Everett end, sprung Jonas Woo for a one-on-one break he made good on for his 26th of the season.
Everett capitalized on the man advantage, for a 3-1 lead at 15:55. Carter Bear tapping Bear tapped in a loos puck after he and Niilopekka Muhonen collided with starter Jordan Switzer.
Forward Andrew Basha says they need to ride momentum better in-game.
“Certain bounces, certain shifts are so important, especially after shorthand goal, knowing we have a really good shift and the crowd gets into it, you have to know that,” Basha said. “You (have) to go and whether it’s a simple shift just keep hemming them in, kind of thing. So I thought at times we didn’t do a great job of that. But there’s some good, there’s some bad and obviously, just learn from it.”
The Tigers answered back with a power play goal of their own to end the frame.
Basha had the puck in the Everett end, he skated in and scored around a defender, potting his eighth of the season. Liam Ruck and Luke Cozens had the assists.
A back-and-forth second period saw the Silvertips outshoot the Tigers 11-7, working a pair of power plays. But it was the Tigers who struck late, tying the game up after 40 minutes.
The Tigers forced a turnover in the Everett end and Kadon McCann kept the puck in the zone. He dished off to Yaroslav Bryzgalov in the slot and he fired a shot on starter Anders Miller. The puck rebounded in front of the crease to Ethan Neutens who knocked home his ninth of the year.
The third period trickled by as both teams had chances to grab a lead. Medicine Hat worked a late power play and held Everett at bay on a man advantage of their own later in the frame. The Silvertips had a Grade A chance in the last two minutes, Julies Miettinen had a back-door chance that rolled through the crease, keeping the game tied at 3-3 head into overtime.
Both teams had their chances in a back-and-forth extra frame before Everett turned up ice and Zackary Shantz scored 2:54 into overtime to secure the Silvertips win.
Switzer finished with 24 saves, Miller had 25 stops. Both teams finished with 28 shots. The Tigers were 1-3 on the power play, Everett was 1-4 with the man advantage.
The Tigers (39-9-5-3) host the Red Deer Rebels on Monday for a 2 p.m. contest. Desjardins has liked what he’s seen the last two games as they look to get a full two points on Monday.
“We have to be better, saying that we played two really good hockey games, I was totally happy with our games and how hard we played,” Desjardins said. “It’s going to be the same Monday, so we’ll have to be ready.”
