For the third straight meeting, the Moose Jaw Warriors weren’t able to hold a lead against the Medicine Hat Tigers.
Saturday night, the Tigers made their comeback count as they skated away 5-3 winners in front of 3,268 at the Canalta Centre.
The Warriors (39-8-1-2) had surrendered three-goal leads to the Tigers (26-19-6-0) in both meetings in Moose Jaw before pulling out a pair of 5-4 wins. The Warriors lead was only 2-1 Saturday, but the league leaders were decisively out-shooting the home side.
Midway through the second period however, Moose Jaw’s Barrett Sheen added to his league-leading penalty total by taking a five-minute checking to the head major that also earned him a game misconduct. Moose Jaw’s Vince Loschiavo picked up a minor in the same sequence that swung the momentum.
David Quenneville tied the game for Tigers on the subsequent five-on-three power play and James Hamblin gave them a 3-2 lead with a power play marker before Sheen’s major had expired.
Three seconds after the teams returned to five-on-five play, the Tigers went back on the power play thanks to a Brayden Burke goaltender interference call.
The Tigers carried their momentum into the third period as Mark Rassell scored 1:57 in to give them a 4-2 lead.
Ryan Peckford scored for Moose Jaw to cut the lead to 4-3, but Quenneville’s empty net goal with two seconds left iced the game. Quenneville now has 21 goals to lead all WHL defencemen.
Brayden Burke scored his 24th of the season to give the Warriors a 1-0 lead after a period.
Medicine Hat tied the game through Ryan Chyzowski early in the second, but Tanner Jeannot gave the Warriors a 2-1 lead on the next shift.
Quenneville had a three-point night and Ryan Jevne had three assists for the Tigers.
Kale Clague picked up a pair of assists and now has 10 assists in seven games thus far with Moose Jaw.
Medicine Hat was 2-for-6 on the power play, while Moose Jaw didn’t earn a power play.
Adam Evanoff made 19 saves and suffered only his second loss of the season in 14 appearances.
Jordan Hollett made 33 saves in goal for the Tigers.
