Showing posts with label Mark Rassell. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mark Rassell. Show all posts

Thursday, 7 December 2017

Tigers clash with Raiders a stellar display for WHL

Max Gerlach (#16) centres a pass for the Tigers.
    The WHL got a gem of a game on Wednesday night at the Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert.
    Before 1,750 spectators, the host Raiders fell 5-4 after a tiebreaking shootout to the visiting Medicine Hat Tigers in a thrilling contest where both sides jetted up and down the ice. 
    In the immediate aftermath, you miss the fact WHL games are no longer shown on Shaw across Western Canada, because Wednesday’s contest between the Raiders and Tigers was a prime example of how great and entertaining that major junior circuit can be.
    The 2017-18 campaign was supposed to be the final season Shaw showed WHL games under a contract the two bodies had, but the television network bought itself out of showing games in what is now the current campaign.
Goalie Jordan Hollett had a stellar game for the Tigers.
    While the Raiders versus Tigers game wasn’t on television, it should be referred to as a selling feature of how great games in the WHL can be. Whether news of the game spreads by word of mouth or by fans over social media channels, it was a game that is worthy of water cooler chat.
    That contest had so many turning points you could point to almost anything in being the difference in the game.
    Besides the teams getting up and down the ice, the biggest talking point would have been the goalies, who were both outstanding. Ian Scott, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 168 pounds, had a solid night making 34 saves over 65 minutes before the game went to a shootout, where he was beaten twice. The quality of saves Scott made were high, and the Calgary product showed he is one of the circuit’s elite goalies.
Ian Scott of the Raiders showed he is one of the WHL’s elite goalies.
    Tigers netminder Jordan Hollett, who stands 6-foot-5 and weighs 210 pounds, was even better turning away 49 shots over 65 minutes and both shooters he faced in the shootout. The Langley, B.C., product, who was the Regina Pats backup goalie last season, proved he is ready for a primetime starting role.
    If video of Hollett’s performance made it down to Regina, you would likely have some Pats fans gripping the 18-year-old puck stopper should have been the goalie the Pats kept in a season where that team hosts the Memorial Cup this coming May.
    The star players came out to play on both sides. Overage centre Jordy Stallard, who stands 6-foot-3 and weighs 179 pounds, potted a pair of goals to continue to lead the Raiders in scoring with 21 goals and 20 assists in 29 games. Stallard’s play was complimented by Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid post-game.
Jordy Stallard tops the Raiders in scoring.
    “He (Stallard) plays quality minutes,” said Habscheid, whose team is 11-11-5-2 so far this season. “He plays a lot of minutes, but he responds.
    “He has scored some big goals for us, and he has been a good player for us.”
    Tigers overage captain Mark Rassell, who stands 6-foot-1 and weighs 186 pounds, scored twice, picked up an assist and potted his team’s first goal in the tiebreaking shootout. He leads the Tigers in scoring with 27 goals and 12 assists in 29 games. Tigers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston said Rassell has been another one of those skilled and speedy players the team seems to constantly find that overlooked.
    “He is such a great story for so many young players, and we’ve had a few of them,” said Clouston, whose team is 17-11-1. “He is the next guy who didn’t play at (age) 16.
    “He wasn’t drafted. He was a list player and undersized. He just happened to grow, and now he is one of our bigger guys.
    “He just stayed the course, stayed positive. He was in and out of the lineup at 17 and became a full-time player at 18 and then at 19 tore it up. He has picked up where he left off last year and even taking it up a notch.”
    There were key performances by others. Eric Pearce, who is a 16-year-old rookie centre, tipped home the Raiders fourth goal of the game.
Captain Mark Rassell has been lighting it up offensively for the Tigers.
    The Raiders showed they have a couple of players that can move the puck well from the defence in Vojtech Budik and Max Martin.
    Tigers rearguard David Quenneville might be the best offensive-defenceman in the WHL. The 19-year-old veteran picked up his 10th goal of the season on Wednesday to go with his 24 assists in another outstanding campaign.
    Right-winger Max Gerlach showed he still has one of the best shots in the league, when he wired home the shootout winner.
    No matter who you cheered for on Wednesday night, the clash between the Raiders and the Tigers was a showstopper, and it is always worthy of discussion.

Goalies rule Canada West women’s hockey

Huskies goalie Jessica Vance has a .955 save percentage so far  this season.
    The goalies have to be give their due in the Canada West Conference in U Sports women’s hockey.
    With a little over half of the regular season now in the books, goal scoring has been a challenge for the eight teams in the Canada West Conference. Only star forward Venla Hovi of the University of Manitoba Bisons is averaging a point a game with four goals and eight assists in 16 appearances.
    On the other end, five of the conference’s goalies have a save percentage that is .950 or better. Kelsey Roberts of the University of Calgary Dinos has the best save percentage in the conference at .959 to go with her 6-7-1 record, 1.46 goals against average and five shutouts.
    The goalies are straight out just getting it done.
    The Dinos are tied with the University of Saskatchewan Huskies for giving up the fewest goals in the conference at 23.
    The Huskies have three second-year goalies who have combined for six shutouts. Jessica Vance has three shutouts, Chloe Marshall has two shutouts and Jasey Book has one shutout.
Vance has the third best save percentage in Canada West at .955 to go with her 4-2 record and 1.18 goals against average.
    To further show just how tough it has been to score in Canada West, Kaitlin Willoughby, who is the third all-time leading scorer in the history of the Huskies, has five goals and five assists in 14 appearances, but sits only four points back of Bisons forward Jordyn Zacharias for the conference’s scoring lead.
    There are a tonne of good goalies in the Canada West Conference in women’s hockey and right now they are a step ahead of the conference’s point producers.

Kish makes a step up with Cougars

Jane Kish has brought her game up another level playing for the Cougars.
    Jane Kish is one of those elite performers who keeps getting better.
    The third-year goalie with the University of Regina Cougars women’s team has brought her game up another level from the previous season. While she had a great campaign in her sophomore season, Kish, who stands 5-foot-4, had a tendency to go down a little early playing the butterfly style and due to her short height, the top part of the net was exposed.
    The book to beat Kish was to shoot the puck high and put it over her shoulders.
    This season, Kish is still playing the butterfly style but is staying upright to take away the top part of the net. Now, the Weyburn, Sask., product has become that much more of a difficult goalie to beat.
    During the Cougars last two games against the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, Kish was beaten only once by a gritty net scramble power-play goal. She turned back 54-of-55 shots in those two contests.
    On the season, Kish has posted a 6-4-1 record, a 1.26 goals against average, a .951 save percentage and two shutouts. Her goals against average is the third lowest in the conference and her save percentage is the fourth highest.
    Back in 2014, Kish backstopped her hometown Weyburn Gold Wings to an Esso Cup title for female midget AAA hockey national supremacy. She has the mental toughness to take a team all the way. It wouldn’t be a surprise if she repeated what she did in midget AAA at the university level.

    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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Wednesday, 6 December 2017

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 10th 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 10th 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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Friday, 29 September 2017

Tigers take Blades to school

Blades D Libor Hajek, left, and Tigers RW Max Gerlach battle for the puck.
    What started out as a tough day for the Saskatoon Blades off the ice didn’t get any easier on the ice.
    At around 3 p.m., the Blades sent out a tweet on social media to announce that former captain Bruce Gordon, who was battling pancreatic cancer, had passed away. The retired 28-year veteran of the Saskatoon Police Service was 54-years-old.
    The Blades honoured Gordon during a magnificent pre-game ceremony before 7,460 spectators at the team’s home opener just seven nights earlier back on Sept. 22. When it came time to play on Friday night, news of Gordon’s passing was still making its way among the 2,457 spectators at the SaskTel Centre.
    A moment of silence was held for Gordon before Friday’s game.
    Saskatoon proceeded to find out you don’t get any breaks in a rough spot when you play one of the WHL’s elite franchises. The visiting Medicine Hat Tigers came in, rolled out to a 6-0 edge after two periods and cruised to a 6-2 victory.
Max Gerlach had two goals and two assists for the Tigers.
    The Tigers also happen to be the first WHL club Gordon played for, and he helped the Tigers advance to the WHL Eastern Conference championship series during his rookie campaign in 1979-80. Gordon came to the Blades in a trade early in the 1980-81 season and remained with the Saskatoon club through the end of the 1981-82 campaign.
    The Blades roster is still on the younger side, and they were taken to school on Friday night by a visitor that plays at a high level night in and night out.
    The Tigers were a step ahead of the Blades all night. Medicine Hat got the puck deep in the Saskatoon zone, and the Tigers forwards forechecked the Blades defenders hard.
    Medicine Hat’s players didn’t exactly get physical in the corners. They were on top of the Saskatoon skaters using stick checks to cause turnovers and making it miserable to for the Blades to advance the puck up the ice.
    When the Tigers had the puck, their up tempo offensive style hit top gear. Medicine Hat’s players seem to just throw the puck around almost with a high comfort level knowing their passes were going on to be on the tape of the stick of an open teammate.
Captain Mark Rassell (#27) score twice for the Tigers.
    Just 6:33 into the first period, the Tigers assumed a 2-0 lead on a pair of goals from star 19-year-old right-winger Max Gerlach. Gerlach’s second tally came off a Blades giveaway.
    The Blades did have some fight in the opening 20 minutes holding a 9-8 edge in the shots on goal department. Saskatoon wasn’t able to find that one moment of traction to turn the game around, and the Tigers buried them in the second period.
    Working on the power play, Tigers overage captain Mark Rassell scored on the back door of the Saskatoon goal to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead at the 6:51 mark of the second. Exactly one minute later, Tigers defenceman Cole Clayton fired home a point shot to put the visitors up 4-0.
Gage Ramsay, left, netting the Blades second goal in the third period.
    At the 10:09 mark, the Tigers were working on another power play, and left-winger Ryan Jevne did his best imitation of Regina Pats superstar Sam Steel driving home a set-up pass from the left corner boards on the edge of the faceoff circle to give Medicine Hat a 5-0 lead.
    That tally chased Blades starting goaltender Ryan Kubic from the net. He made 11 saves on 16 shots.
    Joel Grzybowski, who is an 18-year-old rookie, turned aside 15-of-16 shots in a relief effort for Saskatoon. Rassell beat the Hafford, Sask., product on a breakaway with 13 seconds to play in the second period.
    Gerlach had helpers on two of the Tigers four goals in the second stanza.
Goaltender Michael Bullion (#30) freezes the puck for the Tigers.
    In the third, the Tigers were content to dump the puck into the Blades zone and proceed to forecheck and trap. The visitors still got 13 shots on goal in the final frame.
    Saskatoon got a little burst of momentum scoring two goals 49 seconds apart from each other coming from the sticks of Chase Wouters and Gage Ramsay to cut the Medicine Hat lead to 6-2. The Tigers called a timeout after the second Blades goal to settle things down. The hosts were unable to muster anymore chances to get closer on the scoreboard.
    Overage netminder Michael Bullion turned away 21 shots to help the Tigers improve to 2-1. Medicine Hat travels to Prince Albert on Saturday to face the Raiders.
The Tigers celebrate their 6-2 victory over the Blades.
    The Blades return to action on Saturday, when they host the Calgary Hitmen at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.
    Having fallen to the Swift Current Broncos 5-2 in their home opener, the Blades are 0-2 having falling to two teams that expect to be among the WHL’s best this season. While the Blades don’t have the combination of talent and experience the Broncos and Tigers have, the Saskatoon side has to come to the rink and play at a higher pace to cut the drawback of that factor down.
    If the Blades don’t play at a higher pace, there will be a few more 6-2 scores in favour of the opposition in the future.

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

Saturday, 26 November 2016

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.

Sunday, 27 December 2015

Lindgren lifts Hurricanes in OT

The Lethbridge Hurricanes celebrate their OT win in Medicine Hat.
    MEDICINE HAT - The surprising Lethbridge Hurricanes picked up where they left off in their first game after the WHL Christmas break.
    At the 2:23 mark of overtime, veteran centre Ryley Lindgren potted his second goal of the night to deliver the Hurricanes to a 5-4 victory over the host Medicine Hat Tigers before 5,032 spectators at the Canalta Centre on Sunday. The win allows the Hurricanes, who have missed the post-season for six straight years, to remain first overall in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with a 25-11 record.
    The Tigers, whose record moved to 12-19-3-1, almost pulled off a huge upset rallying from being down 2-0, 3-1 and 4-3 to force overtime. Moments before Lindgren scored, the Tigers looked like they were going to pick up the winner on a two-on-one break.
Ryley Lindgren was the Hurricanes OT hero.
    Medicine Hat winger Max Gerlach appeared to have an open cage to shoot at after receiving a pass from across the face of the Lethbridge goal, but Hurricanes netminder Jayden Sittler slide across the crease to make a huge highlight robbery save.
    Giorgio Estephan scored twice in regulation for the Hurricanes, who received a single from Justin Gutierrez. Gerlach, Cole Sanford, Mark Rassell and Matt Bradley replied with singles for the Tigers. Bradley tied the contest up at 4-4 with 5:20 to play in the third period.
    Sittler made 27 saves in goal for the Hurricanes, while Nick Schneider turned aside 33 shots in goal for the Tigers. The Tigers and Hurricanes will go at it again on Tuesday in Lethbridge.

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