NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Cam Parr celebrates his Game 5 overtime winner Saturday at Co-op Place to beat the Regina Pats 5-4 and take the first-round series 4-1.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com
The Medicine Hat Tigers bent but didn’t break Saturday night, forcing their way to a first-round series win.
They trailed the Regina Pats 4-1 a little over halfway through Game 5 at Co-op Place, looking destined to head to the Queen City for Game 6 on Sunday. A pair of late second period goals, a lucky bounce in the third and an overtime winner from Cam Parr just 51 seconds into the extra frame and the Tigers are off to the second round, winning Game 5 5-4 and taking the first-round series 4-1.
Parr, who missed the first two games of the series, was following the unofficial playoff rule of putting everything on net in overtime.
“When you’re in overtime, no shot is a bad shot, we talked in the intermission about that and getting pucks to the net, it paid off,” Parr said.
The overtime winner was his first goal of the postseason, but his impact was felt beyond the scoresheet, head coach Willie Desjardins said.
“He’s been so valuable for us,” Desjardins said. “He’s really mature, he understands the game, he plays hard and he’s been really good for us. I can’t say enough good things about him, he’s just a real character player.”
Despite the loss, Regina head coach Brad Herauf commended his team for pushing the defending WHL Champions as much as they did in the series.
” It was a great learning experience for us, Medicine Hat is one of the top teams in the country for a reason and the biggest thing for us, we wanted to make it difficult on them,” Herauf said. “We wanted them to have to change their game, because if they don’t change their game, they’re just going to run right over you and I feel like we should be proud of that.
“We made them adapt and change some things they were doing with their lines, even with some of their structure. We felt we were able to, you know, make it real difficult on them and just tonight, a couple unlucky bounces and we just weren’t on the right end of the balances tonight.”
For the third time in the series, the Pats got on the board first.
Dayton Deschamps got the final touch on a point shot from Ellis Mieyette to put the Pats ahead 1-0 just 1:20 into the game and lead by one through 20 minutes. The Tigers had chances in the frame, turned aside by Marek Schlenker on a pair of power plays, as they outshot Regina 11-10 in the period.
Regina rattled off a pair early in the second period for a 3-0 lead.
Zach Lansard scored on a power play 1:54 into the frame and Ruslan Karimov found the back of the net 23 seconds later as the Pats quieted a rowdy Co-op Place with a 3-0- lead.
The Tigers responded on the second of back-to-back power plays.
Andrew Basha jammed home a loose puck at the side of the net for his third of the series, Kadon McCann and Bryce Pickford had the assists.
Regina responded six minutes later, reestablishing the three-goal lead. Ellis Mieyette knocked in a loose puck after Karimov deked his way around a defender and fired a shot on Tigers starter Jordan Switzer that laid at the side of the net.
Basha, who leads the Tigers in postseason scoring with three goals and nine points, says they never dipped after trailing 4-1.
” It was really good in the room on the bench and it showed a lot of characters,” Basha said. “So really happy with all of our responses.”
The Tigers ended the frame with a pair of goals in 1:47 of action.
Luke Cozens, playing in his first game of the series due to injury, spun behind the Regina net and fed Noah Davidson in front for a tap in. Yaroslav Bryzgalov had the second assist on his third of the playoffs.
With seconds left in the frame, the Tigers kept the puck in the Regina end and Dayton Reschny, playing on the blue line, fed Pickford for a one-time blast with 5.8 seconds left in the period to make it a one-goal game after 40 minutes. Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll had the second assist on Pickford’s third of the series.
After pushing for the tie all frame, a lucky bounce put the Tigers in the spot to tie.
A dump in on a power play ricocheted off a stanchion behind the net, kicking out to Liam Ruck in the slot who beat a diving Schlenker and former Tigers Matt Paranych to tie the game up at 4-4 with 4:24 left in the period. Markus Ruck and Basha had the assists on Liam’s third of the playoffs.
Desjardins says the bounce reminded him of the odd bounces their former home, The Arena, was famous for. He added the Tigers created their breaks, he also credited the 5,508 in attendance for helping them push for the comeback.
“We were playing hard, we deserve breaks too, if Liam isn’t up on the play it doesn’t matter, it just goes to the front,” Desjardins said. So for sure, it was a big break for us. But what a great crowd we had to0, it’s so awesome to play in front of the crowd. Like the Regina players were saying it’s going to be nice to go to the Hat because of the crowd. We’re lucky to have that, it was good.”
The Tigers pushed for their first lead of the game but couldn’t find the back of the net as the series’ first overtime was needed. Medicine Hat led in shots through 60 minutes, 36-21.
The series winner came just 51 seconds into the overtime.
Cam Parr threw a puck on the Regina net and it snuck through Schlenker, sending the Tigers off to the second round of the WHL Playoffs. Pickford told the team during intermission anyone can be the hero, he was not surprised Parr donned the cape.
“Nilo (Muhonen) scored last year in the finals, so I was just telling the guys that everybody has to be ready and their time is gonna come and it was Parsy tonight,” Pickford said. “He did unbelievable, his celebration was awesome to watch, what a memory it’s going to be for this group. But we’re moving on and we gotta flip the page and be ready for the second round.”
Switzer finished with 17 saves, picking up his third win of the playoffs. Across the ice, Schlenker had 32 stops, Tigers outshot Regina 37-21. Medicine Hat’s power play finished 2-7, Regina was 1-3 on the man advantage. The Tigers were without defenceman Jonas Woo in Game 5, suspended one game for “inappropriate comments to an opponent” in Game 4 on Wednesday.
The Tigers have to wait for the conclusion of the Edmonton Oil Kings and Saskatoon Blades series to learn their opponent in the second round. If Saskatoon wins, Medicine Hat will face the Calgary Hitmen. If the Oil Kings win, Medicine Hat will face Edmonton. The Blades leads the series 3-2, Game 6 is Sunday in Saskatoon.
