Wow! – Tigers, Raiders burn up the ice in WHL thriller

Medicine Hat claims 5-4 victory after tiebreaking shootout

Tigers captain Mark Rassell (#27) scores in the third period.

    PRINCE ALBERT – It was a WHL game that was made for a national television broadcast.

    On Wednesday at the Art Hauser Centre, the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers and the host Prince Albert Raiders tore up and down the ice in a fire wagon type contest, where the goalies on either side also stood on their respective heads. The two clubs went to overtime locked in a 4-4 draw.
    In the three-versus-three extra session, the first whistle came when there was 8.5 seconds remaining in the frame.

    In the tiebreaking shootout, captain Mark Rassell and star right-winger Max Gerlach scored on the first two shot attempts for the Tigers to allow the visitors to take the session 2-0 and escape the overall game with a 5-4 victory before 1,750 spectators.

Centre Jordy Stallard had a pair of goals for the Raiders.

    “That is the thing about junior hockey is these games are always exciting,” said Rassell, who had two goals and an assist in regulation. “There is so much passion in the air.

    “It is just so fun to win those games. Obviously, we’d like to hunker down a little more defensively and not give up as many goals as we did. We’re happy with the two points in the end.”

    The Raiders had the majority of the best scoring chances in the contest as Tigers starting netminder Jordan Hollett made 49 saves thru 65 minutes and turned away both Raiders shooters he faced in the shootout.

    Prince Albert netminder Ian Scott had a strong outing as well turning away 33 shots over 65 minutes before being beaten by Rassell and Gerlach in the shootout.

Mark Rassell (#27) had two goals and an assist for the Tigers.

    The Tigers controlled play in the first outshooting the Raiders 14-8 in the frame. The visitors got the only goal in the first 20 minutes as left-winger Ryan Jevne knocked home a pass across the face of the Prince Albert goal from linemate Ryan Chyzowski for his 10^th of the season.

    The contest really opened up in the second with the Raiders outshooting the Tigers 19-11 in the frame, and the host side entered the second intermission holding a 3-2 lead. Overage centre Jordy Stallard scored twice for the Raiders in the second period, while Czech import defenceman Vojtech Budik fired home a shot from the top of the left faceoff circle with 22.7 seconds to play in the frame to break a 2-2 tie.

    Rassell had the lone reply for the Tigers in the second.

    The second period also contained a spirited fight between Jevne and Raiders defenceman Brayden Pachal.

    “I thought both teams started out a little careful,” said Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid. “There wasn’t much tempo.

    “Then as the game went on, it got better. It turned out to be a pretty good hockey game. We had more shots, and I thought we had more chances.

Raiders goalie Ian Scott (#33) stops Tigers forward James Hamblin.

    “In overtime, outside of their one break there, I thought we had numerous chances. I thought their goaltender played real good. He was the difference.”

    At the 3:11 mark of the third, Tigers offensive defenceman David Quenneville fired home his 10^th of the season to tie the contest up at 3-3. Rassell potted his second goal of the contest at the 8:28 mark scoring in close at the right side of the Raiders goal to put the visitors up 4-3.

    The Raiders didn’t go away. With 6:58 to play in the frame, 18-year-old defenceman Austin Crossley fired a point shot on goal that was tipped home by 16-year-old rookie centre Eric Pearce to pull the Raiders into a 4-4 tie with the Tigers.

Goalie Jordan Hollett makes an OT save for the Tigers.

    For the past 15 years, the Tigers have built a reputation of playing a type of game where they transition up and down the ice with speed and skill. The Raiders haven’t traditionally played that type of style over that same timespan, but Habscheid believes he has the players to play that type of game.

    “We’ve been trying to play fast,” said Habscheid. “We’ve got some players who have some good feet, so we are able to play that way.

    “We just try to compile something that fits your group. We think we can play a little faster this year.”

    The Tigers just outshot the Raiders 5-4 in an extremely high tempo overtime frame. Raiders 18-year-old right-winger Parker Kelly had two big chances to score the winner at the end of the extra session, but he was denied by Hollett.

    Rassell said it was intense to play almost the entire three-on-three frame without a stoppage.

    “It is nerve-racking,” said Rassell. “Three-on-three and game is on the line.

    “If you are on the ice, you’re the guy they are counting on to stop them from scoring and get it done yourself. With that craziness with no faceoffs, there is no time to rest. There is no time to think.

    “You just have to trust your instincts and play.”

Raiders D Brayden Pachal fights Tigers LW Ryan Jevne.

    The win allowed the Tigers, who sit first in the WHL’s Central Division, to improve to 17-11-1. The Raiders record moved to 11-11-5-2 to hold the second wildcard spot in the WHL’s Eastern Conference.

    “They are a good team,” said Habschield. “They play with pace.

    “We had some turnovers, which plays right into them. They got some offence off of that and some energy off of that.

    “I thought we got better as the game went on. As the game went on, I thought our pace was better than theirs.”

    Tigers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston said he wasn’t surprised the Raiders are trying the play an up-tempo style. The veteran bench boss said the Raiders played his side tough last season and you could see the structure and speed the Prince Albert club was developing as a young team. With the Raiders returning a number of players from last year with an extra year of experience, Clouston expected them to be a tougher opponent this season.

    Wednesday’s game marked the first time the Tigers have defeated the Raiders in the current campaign in three head-to-head meetings.

The Tigers celebrate their 5-4 victory after a tiebreaking shootout.

    “We’ll take the win,” said Clouston. “I thought we got tremendous goaltending especially down the stretch.

    “Going into the third being down a goal and coming out with two points is a real positive. I thought we gave up a couple of really quality chances and Holly (Hollett) kept us in there. We probably spent a little more time in the D-zone than we wanted to, but we hung in and blocked some shots.

    “It wasn’t the prettiest at times, but we got through it.”

    The Tigers return to action Friday, when they travel to Brandon to face the Wheat Kings (20-7-0-1). The Raiders host the Kamloops Blazers (13-15) on Friday at 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser centre in their annual “Teddy Bear Toss” game.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Tigers roar again in the WHL

Medicine Hat returns to elite status after one rebuild year

Zach Fischer celebrates scoring a goal for the Tigers.

    It didn’t take the Medicine Hat Tigers long to start looking like themselves again, which means they alone are worth the price of admission on any of their Western Hockey League game nights.

    Last year, the Tigers saw their run of making the WHL playoffs for 13 consecutive years come to an end. Posting a 30-37-3-2 record in the regular season, the Tigers faced the Edmonton Oil Kings in a standings tiebreaking game for the final playoff berth in the WHL’s Eastern Conference and came away on the wrong end of a 6-4 final.

    After just over a third into the current campaign, the Tigers are back to their high speed and high skill form.

    On Saturday night at the SaskTel Centre, the orange and black systematically dismantled the host Saskatoon Blades 8-2 before 3,802 stunned spectators. The win was Medicine Hat’s ninth straight victory and has vaulted the Tigers to the top of the overall WHL standings with a 20-5-1 mark.

Max Gerlach snipes his hat trick goal for the Tigers.

    The Everett Silvertips (18-3-4) trail the Tigers by a point for first overall with a game in hand.

Veteran Tigers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston has no complaints about where his team is at.

    “It has been great,” said Clouston. “I think our older guys, our leaders are doing a terrific job of making sure the room is ready every night.

    “We’ve got lots of guys contributing. We’ve had some guys really step up and have breakout years. (Mark) Rassell and (Zach) Fischer are good players and they just really had breakout seasons.

    “James Hamblin who was 16-years-old last year, he has taken big strides. We are getting contributions from our imports. I think those two additions with (Kristians) Rubins and (John) Dahlstrom really helped us.”

    The only big down parts the Tigers faced against Saskatoon came from the fact Blades left-winger Braylon Shmyr opened the game’s scoring at the 1:56 mark of the first period, and he added a second marker with 53.8 seconds to play in the opening frame to ensure both sides entered the first intermission locked in a 2-2 tie.

Chad Butcher circles in the offensive zone for the Tigers.

    The rest of the contest belonged to the Tigers. They transitioned up ice at a lightning pace stringing together various quick passes and were on top of Blades goaltenders Logan Flodell and then Brock Hamm with prime scoring chances. Medicine Hat also kept Saskatoon pinned in its own zone with a fairly aggressive forecheck.

    Fischer and offensive defenceman David Quenneville netted the Tigers first period tallies. The visitors blew the roof off the building in the second frame. Overage centre Chad Butcher scored 17 seconds into the middle stanza and right-winger Max Gerlach netted a hat trick, which included two tallies on impressive snipes, to put the Tigers up 6-2.

    Flodell was chased after the Tigers fourth goal at the 2:27 mark of the second turning away 17-of-21 shots sent his way. Hamm stopped 18-of-22 shots sent his direction as the Blade dropped to 10-16-1.

    In the third, Butcher collected his second goal of the night and Dahlstrom added a single to round out the blowout score. Netminder Nick Schneider turned away 22 shots to pick up the win in Medicine Hat’s goal.

    The Tigers effort was businesslike. After each goal, the players took part in a small celebration and calmly skated into position for the next faceoff.

David Quenneville rushes into the offensive zone for the Tigers.

    “It was pretty close there for a bit,” said Quenneville, who had an assist to go along with his goal. “We just played our game, and the floodgates blew open.

    “They were bound to fly open for a time being there, and they did. Honestly, we could have had five or six more, which is really exciting. It shows that when a game is pretty out of hand like it was tonight, that we don’t stop. That is real important for our group.”

    Clouston said one of the big keys this season was the fact his club stuck with a younger group of inexperienced defencemen last season. The Tigers usually like to keep a core of four to five blue-liners together over a three-year period to create a base and chemistry at that position.

    Medicine Hat’s back end has always been key in helping the Tigers quickly transitioning up ice with a quick first pass on to the tape of the stick of a forward striding at full speed. Clouston didn’t want to waive from his team’s style.

    “We knew that there was a certain way that we like to play,” said Clouston. “We could have changed our style a little bit (last season).

    “It might have helped us for the short term. We kept playing the same way and practicing the same way.

    “When we finally got through all our injuries and got healthy, it was starting to pay dividends towards the end of the season, and I think that is continuing this year.”

Goaltender Nick Schneider passes a puck up the boards for the Tigers.

    While he didn’t have an active night against the Blades, Schneider has been solid in his second full season as the Tigers starting goalie after spending about a season and a half as a backup. In 21 games in the current campaign, he has posted an 18-2-1 record, a 2.70 goals against average and a .905 save percentage. Clouston said Schneider has come a long way.

    “Last year, he struggled at the start of the year,” said Clouston. “It was his first opportunity to be the number one guy. It was a major challenge for him.

    “The way things worked out by the end of the year he was that number one guy again. Austin Lotz was with us for a short time, but had a season ending injury. By the end of the season, Schneids had kind of battled through his adversity and grew a lot from that experience, and that has carried over to this year.”

    Quenneville, who is in his third full season with the Tabbies, said it was important for his side to carry on and duplicate the team’s storied successes of the past. He believes his Tigers are getting back to that spot.

Captain Clayton Kirichenko gets set to drive a shot on goal for the Tigers.

    “Last year wasn’t our year, and we wanted to really get back to being a high caliber team in the Western Hockey League and dominating,” said Quenneville. “I think we have done that so far.

    “We have worked real hard. We’ve developed a lot in the last year, and we’re just continuing to get better, and that is the key for our group.”

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

Tigers break Blades' hearts

David Quenneville, right, celebrates his empty-net goal with his teammates.

    Brock Hamm returned to his early season form, but it wasn’t enough to help his Saskatoon Blades.

    The 18-year-old netminder, who has faced a lot of struggles for about the last month and a half, was flat out spectacular turning away 50 of 52 shots on Friday night before 5,073 appreciative spectators at the SaskTel Centre. Unfortunately for Hamm, the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers skated away with a 3-1 victory, which included an empty-net goal.

    Hamm had a number of strong outings helping the Blades jump out to a 7-4-3 start, but he and his team have struggled since falling from the top eight of the WHL’s Eastern Conference and out of a playoff spot.

    Against the Tigers on Friday, it appeared Hamm might steal the game. Early in the first period, he robbed Tigers left-winger Ryan Jevne on a breakaway making a sprawling stop with his left pad, which set the tone for what was to come that night.

    Just past the midway point of the opening frame, the Blades proceeded to jump ahead 1-0 on a power-play goal from speedy centre Cameron Hebig, who redirected a nice set-up pass coming across the face of the Tigers goal from linemate Connor Gay. The marker was Hebig’s 20^th goal of the season.

Brock Hamm stopped 50 of 52 shots taking the loss in goal for the Blades.

    Shortly after that tally, Hamm had to come up with a huge short-handed breakaway stop on Tigers centre Chad Butcher. Medicine Hat held a 17-12 shots on goal advantage after the opening 20 minutes.

    The second period was a high-tempo frame that resulted in both squads having quality scoring chances, where the Blades had a 14-12 edge in shots on goal. Hamm continued turn aside waves of Tigers chances, while Medicine Hat netminder Mack Shields kept the Blades at bay.

    Medicine Hat dominated the third with a big push and finally broke through on the scoreboard at the 12:28 mark of the frame while working on a two-man advantage. Butcher, who was on the point, fed a perfect pass to rearguard David Quenneville near the top of the left faceoff circle, and he wired a blast past Hamm to tie things up at 1-1. The goal game on the Tigers 42^nd shot of the contest.

Matthew Bradley picked up the winning goal for the Tigers.

    About three minutes later, Tigers winger Matthew Bradley fired home a shot low stick side on Hamm to put the visitors up 2-1. That tally came on Medicine Hat’s 47^th shot of the contest. Quenneville sealed with win with an empty-net goal with 23.2 seconds to play. Shields made 34 stops to earn the victory in goal for the Tigers.
    Medicine Hat improved to 15-21-3-1 to sit four points back of the idle Edmonton Oil Kings (17-20-4) for eighth overall in the Eastern Conference. Edmonton holds the conference’s final playoff spot. Saskatoon falls to 15-22-3 to remain five points behind the Oil Kings.

    The Tigers return to action on Saturday, when they travel to Prince Albert to face the Raiders (23-14-3-1).

    The Blades head to Moose Jaw on Saturday to take on the Warriors (20-15-4-1). Over the next five weeks, the Blades will play just four times at home, which increases the difficulty they face in attempting to move up the standings into a playoff spot. In total, Saskatoon plays 12 of its next 16 games on the road.
    The next home game for "The Bridge City" bunch is Jan. 23, when they host the Brandon Wheat Kings at 7 p.m. local time at the SaskTel Centre.

Sanford out after trade request

Cole Sanford (#26) in action for the Tigers on Dec. 27, 2015.

    The Tigers were without star overage right-winger Cole Sanford on Friday night, who requested a trade prior to the game.

    Sanford, who was the team’s captain, has 21 goals and 17 assists in 33 games this season. The Vernon, B.C., product had a career year last season piling up 50 goals and 45 assists in 72 games. During his WHL career, Sanford, who stands 5-foot-9 and weighs 165 pounds, has 106 goals and 111 assists in 230 regular season games.
    Sanford last dressed for the Tigers on Tuesday, when they dropped a 4-2 decision to the visiting Moose Jaw Warriors at the Canalta Centre in Medicine Hat.

    With Sanford out of the lineup, the Tigers named overage defenceman Ty Stanton as their new captain.

    Sanford has spent his entire WHL career with the Tigers having been selected in the sixth round and 117^th overall in the 2010 WHL Bantam Draft. The WHL’s trade deadline is set for 12 p.m. Mountain Time on Sunday.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass on about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.