Keith Hershmiller
Eastern Division

Tigers claw back to beat Pats in a shootout

Written by Kevin Shaw on

 

The Regina Pats (22-27-3-2) had a two-goal lead heading into the third period only to see that evaporate as the Medicine Hat Tigers (11-41-3-1) clawed back to beat the Pats 5-4 in a shootout.

Medicine Hat scored the opening two goals of the game before the Pats scored four straight in the second period to give them a 4-2 lead heading into the home stretch before the Tigers tied up the game in the third before sealing it in the shootout.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t take that last 10 minutes of the second period into our third period, because we played so well in the last 10 minutes of the second [and] really had the momentum,” Pats assistant coach Ken Schneider said after the disappointing loss. “We carried the play down low there, in their end of the rink, and we simply got away from it. We just got outworked again in the third period and Medicine Hat held along long enough to get themselves back in the game. Some unfortunate breaks, with the post that [Cole] Carrier hits and so on, but, regardless of those situations, that’s created by us just not wanting to have that killer instinct

The Pats had trouble getting control in their zone and the Tigers made them pay as Pavel Bocharov received a pass from Teague Patton from deep in the Pats zone, he then snapped a shot that beat Drew Sim high to his glove side from in close. His third of the season (second with the Tigers) at 7:06 gave the Tigers the early 1-0 lead.

The Pats trailed the Tigers 1-0 heading into the first-period break. The Pats were up 11-8 on the shot clock through 20 minutes.

Medicine Hat doubled their lead as Logan Barlage hit Brendan Lee with a cross-crease pass and he fired a shot past Drew Sim. The powerplay goal made it 2-0 at 7:17 of the first period.

Cole Dubinsky dangled around the Tigers zone and got in close where he threw a backhand at the Tigers net and the puck beat Garin Bjorklund to give the Pats some life. His 16th of the season made it 2-1 just 42 seconds after the Tigers took a two-goal lead.

Connor Bedard knots the game at 2-2 at 11:23 with his 38th goal of the season when he got a pass in front and put a backhand past the Tigers goaltender.

Bedard extended his point streak to 18 games.

Bedard got in alone on the Tiger goalie but could not beat Bjorklund. He was able to get Bjorklund way out of position so he sent a pass to Tanner Howe who made no mistake and fired home his 24th of the season at 14:20.

Bedard won a race to the loose puck in the Tiger zone and he fed a pass by a diving defender to Stanislav Svozil who buried his 10th goal of the season to give the Pats a 4-2 lead at 15:10 of the middle stanza.

The Pats held a 26-11 shot advantage and a 4-2 lead through forty minutes.

Steven Arp (third) pulled the Tigers back to within one goal at 4-3 when he redirected a Josh Van Mulligen shot past Sim at 7:49.

With 4.9 seconds left and with the Tigers net empty and all the pressure in the Pats zone, Lee scored his second of the game (10th of the season) when he deflected the game-tying goal through the legs of Sim to send the game to overtime.

Despite the Pats outshooting the Tigers 37-21 through 60 minutes, the game needed extra time.

Neither team found the answer in overtime and it was off to a shootout.

Medicine shot first.

Reid Andresen is stopped.

Bedard misses.

Andrew Basha scored.

Svozil is stopped.

Barlage scored.

Game over. Comeback complete.

The final shots in regulation were 40-22 for the Pats.

The Pats went 0-for-3 on the powerplay while the Tigers went 1-for-2.

“We just got away from working hard and that’s what was creating success,” Schneider said. “Medicine Hat started out early hard on us and we weren’t quite ready at the beginning of the game. We found our game, started playing hard, we were starting to work our opponent and played real good in the second period. And the third period came along and you can never underestimate any any team, it doesn’t matter where they are. If they’re a team in this league, they can beat you on any given night and we got a bit selfish in trying to score goals and giving up odd-man rushes. We took that game away from them below the goal line, but we got away from it completely.”

Sim stopped 18 of 22 shots in the loss and allowed two goals (on three shots) in the shootout. Bjorklund stopped 36 of 40 and was not beaten in the shootout.

Patterings: Adam McNutt and Logan Linklater drew into the Pats lineup…The three-stars were: Lee, Bedard, and Arp…the Pats’ next action is Wednesday night when they travel to Lethbridge to play the Hurricanes.