Tigers deliver win over Giants in Ridley’s 3,900th game

James Hamblin had three points for the Tigers on Wednesday.

    The Medicine Hat Tigers ensured a milestone night for team’s iconic play-by-play voice would be a memorable one.

    On Wednesday before 2,791 spectators at the Canalta Centre in Medicine Hat, the Tigers slipped past the B.C. Division leading Vancouver Giants 4-3 in a back-and-forth WHL regular season clash. Captain James Hamblin had two goals and an assist to power the Tigers to their fourth straight win.

Medicine Hat has won all four of its outings since returning to action from the WHL Christmas break.

    Wednesday’s game marked the 3,900^th Tigers contest called by Bob Ridley, who is the team’s legendary play-by-play voice. Ridley is the only play-by-play voice the Tigers have had as they play through their 49^th season of existence.

    No one is close to Ridley’s mark for games called as the play-by-play voice of one hockey team at any level.

    To date, Ridley has called 3,474 of the Tigers 3,475 regular season games. His total also includes the one standings tiebreaker game the club appeared in, all of the Tigers 405 games in the WHL playoffs and all 20 of their contests in the Memorial Cup tournament.

    The Tigers have appeared in the Memorial Cup in 1973, 1987, 1988, 2004 and 2007 and won the event in 1987 and 1988.

Bob Ridley called his 3,900 game for the Tigers.

    As it stands already, someone could call 80 games on average between the regular season and playoffs each season for 48 seasons and still fall short of Ridley’s current total of 3,900 games called.
    For most of his broadcasting career, Ridley drove the team bus as well. He gave up those duties about four years back.

    If the Tigers make the WHL playoffs this season, Ridley would be targeted to reach 4,000 games near the end of next season, which would be the Tigers 50^th anniversary campaign.

    Wednesday’s victory allowed the Tigers to improve to 21-15-1-2, while the Giants, who still lead the B.C. Division, fell to 23-11-2 with a third consecutive loss.

    At the moment, the Tigers hold the first wildcard position in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with 45 standings points. They hold a lead of seven points over the Calgary Hitmen (17-16-3-1) and nine points over the Brandon Wheat Kings (15-14-3-3).

    The Hitmen have two games in hand on the Tigers, and the Wheat Kings have four games in hand on Medicine Hat. At the moment, Brandon is sitting out of a playoff spot.

    Hamblin opened the game’s scoring at the 15:14 of the first period to allow the Tigers to head into the first intermission with a 1-0 lead.

    Early in the second period, the Giants scored two goals 22 second apart from each other to go ahead 2-1 coming off the sticks of Davis Koch and Justin Sourdif. Following Sourdif’s goal, the Tigers called a timeout to settling things down on their side.

    With 5:15 remaining in the second, Hamblin scored his second of the night to force a 2-2 tie after the Tigers caused a turnover on the forecheck. Just 33 seconds after Hamblin tied the game, centre Elijah Brown potted his sixth goal of the season to give the Tigers a 3-2 edge.

Hayden Ostir scored the winning goal for the Tigers

    At the 8:48 mark of the third, right-winger Hayden Ostir scored for the Tigers to give the host side a 4-2 edge. Hamblin picked up an assist on Ostir’s goal.

    The Giants didn’t go away. With 8:21 remaining in the third, Lukas Svejkovsky scored for the Giants to cut the Tigers lead to 4-3.
    Vancouver pushed hard the rest of the way in search of the equalizer, but Tigers veteran 19-year-old goaltender Jordan Hollett, who was playing in his 100^th career WHL regular season game, slammed the door at that point.

    Hollett made 29 saves to pick up the win in goal for the Tigers. David Tendeck turned away 32 shots to take the setback in goal for the Giants.

    The Tigers return to action on Friday, when they host the Kootenay Ice at 7:30 p.m. local time at the Canalta Centre.

    The Giants resume game action on Friday, when they travel to Lethbridge to face the Hurricanes at 7 p.m. local time at the Enmax Centre.

Shirley named assistant captain for Canada

Grace Shirley will be an assistant captain for Canada.

    Saskatoon Stars captain Grace Shirley was placed on the leadership group for Canada’s under-18 women’s team.

    On Monday, the 17-year-old centre was named an assistant captain for the team. Shirley is playing in her fourth full season in the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League, and she leads the circuit in scoring with 19 goals and 15 assists for 34 points in the current campaign.

    The Saskatoon product is the third all-time leading scorer in the history of the SFMAAAHL piling up 89 goals and 63 assists for 152 points in 100 career regular season games.

    Defender Maggie MacEachern, who is from Brooklin, Ont., will serve as Canada’s captain, and defender Alexie Guay, who is from Magog, Que., will be an assistant captain.

    Canada opens play at the under-18 women’s worlds in Obihiro, Japan, on Saturday against Sweden. The under-18 women’s worlds run through to Jan. 13.

    Shirley is playing in the under-18 women’s worlds for the second consecutive year for Canada.

    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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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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    If you like what you see here, you might want to donate to the cause to keep independent media like this blog going. Should you choose to help out, feel free to click on the DONATE button in the upper right corner. Thank you for stopping in.