Hurricanes Suffer Heartbreaking 7-6 Overtime Loss to Tigers; Trail Series 3-0
Lethbridge, AB – The Lethbridge Hurricanes suffered a heartbreaking 7-6 overtime loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers on Tuesday at the VisitLethbridge.com Arena in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference Championship Series.
Lethbridge returned home trailing Medicine Hat 2-0 in the best-of-seven series after a pair of road losses on Friday and Saturday at Co-op Place. The Hurricanes came out flying to open Game 3 and had an early scoring chance by Logan Wormald but was stopped by Harrison Meneghin. Lethbridge opened the scoring for the first time in the series at the 3:41 mark when Kooper Gizowski wired home his fifth goal of the playoffs on a power play to make it a 1-0 lead; Caden Price and Easton Daneault earned the assists on the goal. The Hurricanes doubled their lead at the 11:42 mark as Noah Chadwick scored his sixth goal on a three-on-two beating Meneghin over the glove to make it 2-0; Brayden Edwards and Miguel Marques were credited with the assists on the goal. Lethbridge was outshot 11-9 in the first period but held a 2-0 advantage on Medicine Hat.
Early in the second, the Hurricanes struck again just 5:26 into the period when Kash Andresen caught the Tigers on a line change and scored his first career playoff goal on a breakaway making it a 3-0 game; Luke Cozens picked up the lone assist on the goal. Just half a minute later, Medicine Hat scored to cut the lead back to two as Gavin McKenna centered to Ryder Ritchie before he ripped a shot over the glove of Jackson Unger to make it a 3-1 game. The Hurricanes answered back just under three-minutes later when Chadwick leaned into a one-timer on a power play to give Lethbridge a 4-1 lead as the ‘Canes captain potted his second two-goal game of the playoffs; Marques and Brayden Yager were credited with the assists on the goal. The Tigers pressed in the back-half of the period as they peppered Unger who was forced to make countless great saves, with his best coming Bryce Pickford. Medicine Hat pulled to within two goals on a power play marker by Liam Ruck who snapped a shot low blocker to make it a 4-2 game. Before the period was out, the Tigers cut the lead to one when Tanner Molendyk cruised in on the right wing before rifling a wrist shot off the crossbar and in to make it a 4-3 contest after forty minutes of play. Medicine Hat outshot Lethbridge 20-9 in the middle frame.
The see-saw battle continued into the third period as the Hurricanes restored a two-goal lead just 1:12 into the final frame as Marques buried a rebound from an Edwards shot to give Lethbridge a 5-3 advantage. Lethbridge had a power play shortly after the insurance goal, but it was Mathew Ward that wired a wrist shot on a partial breakaway from his third of the playoffs to cut the lead back to one with the shorthanded goal. Medicine Hat tied the game 5-5 at the midway point when Kadon McCann lifted home his first career playoff goal with 10:23 remaining in the game; Misha Volotovskii and Jonas Woo picked up the helpers on the goal. Lethbridge pulled back in front with 3:19 remaining in regulation as Brayden Yager ripped home a loose puck in the slot to give the Hurricanes a 6-5 lead with an unassisted goal. Medicine Hat pulled the goaltender for the extra attacker and with just over a minute left in the game, Bryce Pickford fired home his sixth of the season beating a screened Unger to once again tie the game 6-6 and to force overtime. The Hurricanes were outshot 12-7 in the third period.
In the extra session, the Tigers found the game-winning just 2:41 in when McKenna jumped on a defensive blue line turnover because bursting in two-on-one and slipped a pass across to Oasiz Wiesblatt who tapped home his team leading 14th goal to give the Tigers the come-from-behind 7-6 overtime victory and a 3-0 series lead. Shots were even 2-2 in the overtime period.
The Hurricanes were outshot 45-27 in the contest by the Tigers. Lethbridge went 2/4 with the power play while Medicine Hat was 1/2 with the extra man.
Three stars of the game were:
1) Tigers – #24 Tanner Molendyk (1 goal, 3 assists)
2) ‘Canes – #8 Noah Chadwick (2 goals)
3) Tigers – #18 Jonas Woo (2 assists)
The loss for the Hurricanes was their third straight defeat as they now trail the Eastern Conference Final 3-0. Lethbridge fell to 0-3 in the post-season in overtime with the defeat and have now lost seven-straight games to Medicine Hat dating back to the regular season.
The Hurricanes will welcome the Tigers in a must-win Game 4 of the best-of-seven Eastern Final on Wednesday at 7:00pm at the VisitLethbridge.com Arena. Tickets can be purchased by visiting the Yates Memorial Theatre or VisitLethbridge.com Arena Ticket Centre, by calling 403-329-SEAT (7328) or online at www.visitlethbridgearena.ca.
