Third period comeback powers Saskatoon Blades over Edmonton Oil Kings in Game 3 victory
5h ago
The Medicine Hat Tigers showed off their high-powered offence against the Regina Pats on Tuesday.
Medicine Hat, who scored a WHL-leading 348 goals in the regular season, earned an 8-2 win over the Pats at the Brandt Centre in Game 3 of their playoff series. The Tiger, who finished second in the Eastern Conference, have now taken a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven showdown.
Despite the big loss, Pats head coach Brad Herauf thought his team played better than the scoreboard showed, noting it was 6-2 at one point but both teams had 21 shots on net.
“I think there was lots of stuff we liked about our team. I think a couple of those shots need to be stopped but they were shooting and they weren’t missing tonight. They were going post, bar and in. They have good shooters and they score easy. When we hold them to 21 and 21 shots and 6-2, there were some good things in our game. Multiple breakaways and penalty shots. We just didn’t bury on our chances,” Hersauf said. “Once you give them momentum, they score in bunches and it’s hard to slow down that momentum with their offence.”
Pats captain Ephram McNutt shared the same sentiments as his coach.
“I don’t think we particularly played bad tonight. They buried some chances and we didn’t. I felt like we had a couple prime chances in the second period and some real good looks but we just weren’t burying like they were and that cost us against a team like them,” McNutt said.
Ultimately, Herauf said the team just didn’t play as hard in this game as it did in a 4-2 win in Medicine Hat on Saturday.
“Body checking and finishing checks. We added some really good hockey players into our lineup and, unfortunately, sometimes you do that and you take your team out of survival mode. I thought we were in survival mode and everything was desperation and second and third efforts. Were we making mistakes? Yeah, but we were making it really difficult on them,” Herauf said. “I thought there were spots in the first period we were and then through our cycle, I thought we were but in the end, they are a good team and it just wasn’t consistent enough.”
The Pats added both highly touted prospects Maddox Schultz and Liam Pue to the lineup for the first time in the postseason. Both of them have been playing with the Regina Pat Canadians, where they just won the Saskatchewan Male U18 AAA Hockey League title last week.
Keets Fawcett also made his way back into the lineup after missing time due to an injury.
Regina had appeared to score the opening goal of the game but the officials said Zach Moore had swung at the puck with his stick, which had been broken just moments prior. Zach Moore received a delay of game penalty for the infraction, the first of four Pats penalties in the period.
Medicine Hat forward Yaroslav Bryzgalov opened the scoring in the game for the Tigers as he got around the Pats defenceman and sniped a shot past Pats goaltender Marek Schlenker, who had backstopped Regina to their win in Game 2.
Kade Stengrim added another goal in the first period as well as did Bryce Pickford, who scored with 35 seconds left in the opening frame.
While Regina had committed four penalties, two of those infractions saw a Medicine Hat player also sent to the penalty box.
Regina started the second period on the power play and made good on it. Ruslan Karimov scored with the man-advantage — the first power-play goal for the Pats in the series after coming up short the previous 10 times.
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But from there, it would mostly be Medicine Hat taking over the game in the period.
Andrew Basha also scored in the second period as the Tigers regained their three-goal lead.
A few minutes later, Basha fired another shot past Schlenker, this time on the power play. That goal led to the Pats making a goaltender change, with Game 1 starter Taylor Tabashniuk coming into the game. Schlenker finished with 14 saves on 19 shots.
Pue scored his first career WHL Playoff goal when he beat Medicine Hat goaltender Jordan Switzer.
“It feels pretty good to get the first playoff goal out of the way fast but you wish it was a better outcome in the end,” Pue said.
But Carter Cunningham extended the lead once again for the Tigers with his shot hitting the back of the net with 31 seconds left in the period.
Medicine Hat added another even more in the third as Noah Davidson and Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll scored a goal.
Coming into the game, the Pats were coming off of a split in Medicine Hat against the Tigers in the first round of the WHL Playoffs. After losing 6-2 in the opening game on Friday, Regina evened the series at one game apiece.
That win in Medicine Hat was the first time the Pats had beaten the Tigers this season.
Herauf said the message to the team is to rebound.
“In the end, there’s going to be times where Medicine Hat is going to outplay us and we can win hockey games. Even when we win the hockey game, we should expect to be outplayed at times and we need to feel comfortable in those moments that we aren’t being overwhelmed,” Herauf said. “In the end, (the game) wasn’t that bad. I think we are mature about it. We need to stay in the moment of it and in the end, it’s 0-0 starting tomorrow.”
Game 4 is Wednesday night at the Brandt Centre with puck drop set for 7 p.m.
