Photo courtesy Randy Feere / Medicine Hat Tigers

By Scott Roblin

Shootout Loss

Stotts’ shootout winner snaps Tabbies win streak at five

Apr 5, 2021 | 11:14 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Not much separated the Medicine Hat Tigers and Calgary Hitmen on Monday night, with a Riley Stotts shootout goal proving to be the difference.

The Tigers saw their five-game win streak snapped at Co-Op place falling to the Hitmen 5-4 in a shootout, losing their first game since March 14.

Rookie Oren Shtrom had a pair of third period goals in the loss to help Medicine Hat salvage a point, however it wasn’t enough to complete the weekend sweep over the Hitmen.

Despite the loss, the Tigers were able to pick up five out of six points against Calgary over the weekend and remain firmly in second place in the Central Division with a 9-3-1 record.

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“We put ourselves in a tough spot a couple times, but we were able to find a way to get out of it,” said Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins. “I thought [Garin] Bjorklund was good for us in net, he played hard. It was just a tough game, but all in all for us to get five out of six… that’s a good weekend.”

Calgary opened the scoring with sophomore Sean Tschigerl kicking the puck to his stick and netting his fifth of the season less than eight minutes into the game.

That was followed up by a nifty move from Medicine Hat’s Corson Hopwo two minutes later, pulling the puck to his forehand and tucking it past Hitmen goaltender Jack McNaughton to make it 1-1.

“We put ourselves in a tough spot a couple times, but we were able to find a way to get out of it,” said Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins. “I thought [Garin] Bjorklund was good for us in net, he played hard. It was just a tough game, but all in all for us to get five out of six… that’s a good weekend.”

Midway through the second period while on a 5-on-3 power play, the Tigers grabbed their first lead of the night with Brett Kemp sniping a cross-ice feed from Cole Clayton.

Cale Zimmerman was able to get the Hitmen back to even later in the second, before Calgary scored their first power play goal of the season on their over 5-on-3 man advantage early in the third from Orca Wiesblatt.

Medicine Hat fought back with around 13 minutes to go in regulation, as Shtrom cut into the Hitmen zone and dragged three defenders with him before firing the puck past McNaughton for the beautiful game-tying marker.

“I think game by game I’m getting more confidence with the puck,” said Shtrom. “I had speed and I saw he was flat-footed, so I just made a move and tried to take him to my backhand and it worked out.”

Not to be outdone however, Tschigerl scored his own highlight-reel marker under two minutes later for his second of the night to restore Calgary’s lead 4-3.

Shtrom came through on the power play for Medicine Hat with under six minutes to play for his first multi-goal performance in the WHL to send the game to overtime, however Stotts would win it in the shootout for the Hitmen.

Bjorklund posted another stellar night with 41 stops on 45 shots against, while McNaughton earned the win with a 29-save evening.

“It’s a great achievement to get five out of six points,” said Hopwo. “Obviously, it’s not the result we wanted and we wanted that sixth point. But, good back-to-back weekends and we need to keep it going heading into Lethbridge next week.”

The Tigers open up their next series against the Lethbridge Hurricanes on Friday night, visiting their rivals for the first of three games at 7:00 pm.