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By Scott Roblin

Penalty Parade

Penalty kill struggles highlight Tigers’ 6-3 loss in Red Deer

Mar 11, 2022 | 10:29 PM

RED DEER, AB – Self-inflicted wounds on the penalty kill proved to be the difference Friday night for the Medicine Hat Tigers in their 6-3 loss in Red Deer.

The Rebels converted on four of their five opportunities with the extra skater, while the Tigers saw their lead midway through the first period vanish in the opener of a home-and-home set.

Kalan Lind converted on a Rebels tap-in from Ben King just 5:30 into the night on the man advantage, setting the tone for the rest of the game.

Medicine Hat was able to quickly respond from that early 1-0 deficit however, as Carter Chorney picked up the puck down low and executed a wraparound on the backhand just over a minute later to tie things up.

The Tigers kept building momentum in the following minutes, with Logan Barlage scoring in his second straight game off a Dru Krebs point-shot to give Medicine Hat their first lead at the midway mark of the period.

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Red Deer’s attack began to grow as the first frame crawled along however, with Lind tallying his second of the night with 3:44 left before the intermission with a shot off the face-off that caught Medicine Hat’s Garin Bjorklund by surprise.

That set things up for Arshdeep Bains, on the same day he signed an NHL contract with the Vancouver Canucks, to score the go-ahead goal with less than nine seconds left to take the air out of Medicine Hat’s tires.

A parade to the penalty box would ensue for the Tigers in the second period, with King registering his 44th goal of the season off a set up feed from Christoffer Sedoff to make it a 4-2 game on the power play.

Following penalties to Rhett Parsons and Barlage, the Rebels were handed a five-on-three advantage and only needed four seconds to boost their lead to three goals with a Sedoff wrist shot from the left circle.

Red Deer’s fourth power play goal of the night came 4:33 into the third period with Kai Uchacz going top shelf on the short side of Bjorklund to essentially put the game out of reach.

Three minutes later, Gleb Ivanov was able to answer back with a power play goal of his own for Medicine Hat to cut the deficit to 6-3, but the damage had already been done.

Friday’s loss in Red Deer marked the Tigers’ first defeat at Peavey Mart Centrium this season, as they were previously undefeated in two games dating back to the first half of the year.

With their victory over Medicine Hat, the Rebels punched their ticket to the WHL post-season thanks to a Prince Albert loss in overtime against Saskatoon.

The Tigers and Rebels meet up again on Saturday back at Co-Op Place to close out the weekend set with puck drop scheduled for 7:00 pm.