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By Scott Roblin

Winless in February

Hall’s five-goal night sends Tigers to their 10th straight loss

Feb 26, 2022 | 10:45 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Justin Hall was simply on fire Saturday night and the Medicine Hat Tigers had no answers for the Lethbridge Hurricanes sniper.

Hall exploded for a career-high five goals and added a helper against the Tigers at the ENMAX Centre, as Medicine Hat was for the most part dominated by the Hurricanes in a 9-2 blowout loss.

The loss marked Medicine Hat’s 10th in a row and have now gone an entire calendar month without a win for the second time this year, failing to pick up two points in the month of February.

For the second straight game, the Tigers also struggled on the penalty kill as Hall netted three of his five goals with the extra skater.

Two bright spots in the Tigers’ lineup Saturday were affiliate call-ups Tomas Mrsic and Zach Zahara, who impressed as the two youngest players in Medicine Hat’s lineup.

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Mrsic, the Tigers’ first round pick in December’s WHL Draft, recorded his first career WHL goal in the loss while Zahara was called in relief of Garin Bjorklund midway through the second period for his first career WHL action and made a number of big third period stops.

Lethbridge’s Tyson Laventure opened up the scoring with 6:29 remaining in the first, converting on a give-and-go play with Ty Nash for the game’s first goal.

Hall’s dominance on the power play began just a few minutes later, batting a puck out of the air past Bjorklund to double Lethbridge’s lead.

That was followed up with a set play by the Hurricanes, which saw Yegor Klavdiev spring Hall at the attacking blueline from behind his net to which Hall shifted to his forehand and buried the 3-0 goal.

Hall completed the natural hat-trick just 1:22 into the second period with a tipped Logan McCutcheon to jump out to a 4-0 lead.

Nearing the midway mark of the second, Hall netted his fourth of the night off a feed from Alex Thacker which was followed up immediately after by a Chase Pauls long-range shot.

That sixth goal would spell the end of Bjorklund’s night, pulled after giving up six goals on 27 shots against.

Zahara’s WHL debut didn’t start great however as the first shot he saw was a Hall breakaway which tickled the twine for his fifth of the evening, becoming the first ‘Canes player to do so since 2012.

Trailing 7-0 at this point, the Tigers finally found the scoresheet as Logan Barlage in his return to Lethbridge found Mrsic on a two-on-one for the call-up’s first goal as a member of the Tigers.

Bogdans Sodass netted Medicine Hat’s second goal of the period on the power play, one-timing a set up cross-ice from Teague Patton to cut the deficit to 7-2.

Just over 30 seconds later though, Ty Nash recorded his 15th goal of the season to give the Hurricanes their six-goal lead back at the intermission.

Logan Wormald added one more goal for Lethbridge in the third period, set up by a drop pass from Hall to secure the win.

Zahara made 12 saves for Medicine Hat in his first taste of WHL game play.

Going 0-for-10 in February, the Tigers will look to kick off March on the right foot as they host the Red Deer Rebels on Tuesday night at 7:00 pm.