Mark Rassell could only do so much for the Medicine Hat Tigers.
A heroic effort came up short as the Tigers ran out of gas and fell 4-3 in overtime late on Easter Sunday and were eliminated by the Brandon Wheat Kings.
After coughing up a 2-0 series lead in the Eastern Conference quarterfinal tilt to the Wheat Kings, the 20-year-old captain Rassell was not going to go down without a fight.
Needing a win to extend his major-junior career, Rassell took a centre ice pass from David Quenneville and split between Braden Schneider and Schael Higson through the neutral zone and shoveled home a one-handed backhand.
Seven minutes later off a Jaeger White defensive faceoff win, the Medicine Hat product White took off with Rassell through the neutral zone. Dylan Myskiw made the initial save on the brief two-on-one, but Rassell was there to slam home his second of the game.
Even though the Wheat Kings fired 14 shots on net in the first period, the biggest save came from Quenneville with one minute remaining in the first.
James Shearer lined up a point shot that was stopped by Hollett. Spinning, looking for the puck, Hollett took himself out of the play. The puck made its way over to Luka Burzan in front of a scramble by the blue ice. Burzan tried to whack it into the open cage, but diving into the play and covering the puck up on the goal line was Quenneville. There was a brief review, but it was quickly determined that it was a non-goal and there was no penalty shot to be awarded for Quenneville covering up the puck. The Tigers headed into the first break up 2-0.
But like they have on multiple occasions now in this series, the Wheat Kings have showed no signs of panic when trailing 2-0. Game 6 was no exception.
After a groggy start to the second, the Wheat Kings started buzzing when the Connor Gutenberg line held the zone for nearly a minute, but only mustered one shot on a Braden Schneider one timer.
Looking to spark the troops Zach Wytinck squared off with Baxter Anderson of the Tigers in the first fight of the series. The fight didn’t last long, but Wytinck was the last man standing.
After igniting the Credit Union Place crowd of Dauphin, the Wheat Kings got on the board 23 seconds later when Stelio Mattheos hammered home a backhand feed from Ty Lewis in the corner. Mattheos now with three goals in the series, has goals in back-to-back games.
The action only picked up from there, as Shearer rang one off the crossbar. Kristians Rubins’ point shot missed the net and rimmed around the boards, sending Lewis and Mattheos on a two-on-one. Lewis kept and shot, with Mattheos driving to the net. Jordan Hollett, who was making his fifth start of the series for the Tigers, made the save on Lewis, along with stopping the Mattheos and Burzan rebound opportunities.
Rassell was looking for the hat trick with a long shot from the outside in the second, but was blocked by Gutenberg. The rebound off his shin pads sent Linden McCorrister and Evan Weinger on a two-on-one. The Californian-born Weinger pulled the trigger and ripped one past Hollett up top for his third of the series and tying the series-clinching game.
Rassell was everywhere in this one, as Tigers Head Coach Shaun Clouston began double-shifting his star.
Schael Higson turned a Wheat Kings puck over at centre, which sent Ryan Chyzowski and Rassell in on a two-on-one rush, but Rassell was denied once again by Myskiw, who made a remarkable 52 saves.
Quenneville went point-for-point with Rassell in the regular season, both finishing with 80 points. Quenneville was riding shotgun for Rassell in the postseason, too.
Using his booming slap shot for the point, Quenneville was able to put the puck in the proper position for his captain. The hot hand gave his team a 3-2 lead 32 seconds into the final frame.
For Quenneville, it was his eighth point of the playoffs.
The Tigers, as expected, were able to sustain that pressure in the final 20, as they fired 25 shots at Myskiw.
But the Wheat Kings have been a resilient bunch all series and weathered the storm. Entering Game 6, they trailed for 151 minutes. In the clincher, the Wheaties trailed for 42:07 until McCorrister pounded home his third of the series.
McCorrister made a nice play to keep the puck down low and gave it to Weinger. The Manitoban then bolted across the net just in time for Weinger to spot him with a touch pass that quickly found its way to the back of the net to tie the game at three at the 11:51 mark.
With time ticking down in regulation, Gutenberg set up Weinger with a breakaway in the neutral zone, but was defended by Rubins. Weinger was barely able to get off a backhand attempt. There was no penalty on the play.
After all four regular-season meetings went to overtime this year. It took until the sixth game of this series for extra time to be required.
In overtime, it was clear who the best player on the ice was. Stealing the mantle from Rassell was McCorrister, who fired four of his eight shots in the bonus frame.
His fourth appeared the least harmless; a wrister from the corner looking to get a rebound in the slot.
Hollet was under fire all game en route to making 42 saves. He already notched a key stop on Lewis and Mattheos in overtime, when he got handcuffed my McCorrister.
McCorrister’s second of the game and fourth of the series found a crack in the Langley B.C product, sending Dauphin into a frenzy and the Wheat Kings into the second round.
The Tigers now see their streak of winning at least one round in the playoffs halted at eight trips to the postseason.
The Wheat Kings now advance to take on the Lethbridge Hurricanes, which kicks off Friday night at the Enmax Centre in Lethbridge.
In four regular season meetings with the Hurricanes, the Wheat Kings went 3-1 with a plus-nine goal differential.
