Photo courtesy of Candice Ward

By Scott Roblin

Crushing Comeback

Tigers blow three-goal lead, allow six straight in matinee loss to Hitmen

Oct 20, 2019 | 7:23 PM

CALGARY, AB – Over the first eight minutes of Sunday’s matinee contest, the Medicine Hat Tigers came out of the gates flying.

Three straight goals put the Calgary Hitmen on their heels, but over the next 52 minutes everything would fall apart for Medicine Hat in a 6-3 loss at the Scotiabank Saddledome.

The Tigers allowed six consecutive goals from the Hitmen including a pair each from Mark Kastelic and Riley Stotts, seeing a four game win streak come crashing down.

Rookie Cole Sillinger was able to pot his eighth of the season just 67 seconds into Sunday’s contest to open the scoring, beating Calgary’s Jack McNaughton.

That set the table for two Ryan Chyzowski goals in the span of 1:07 for the Tigers, netting a pair from almost the same angle at the right side of the crease to increase Medicine Hat’s lead to three.

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McNaughton would get the yank from Hitmen coach Steve Hamilton for Taber product Brayden Peters, exiting with three goals allowed on nine shots.

Calgary’s pressure on Mads Søgaard increased as the period went along, culminating with a point shot by Jackson van de Leest getting the Hitmen on the board with 57 seconds left before the intermission.

Midway through the second period, the Tigers were caught on an odd-man rush after a turnover in the neutral zone by Medicine Hat’s Brett Kemp.

Carson Focht’s initial shot was blocked, however he picked up the puck behind the net and banked it off Søgaard’s skate to make it a 3-2 game for the Hitmen.

Less than two minutes later, Calgary captain Kastelic tied up the contest at 3-3 with a nifty backhand shot at the side of the net that squeaked past the pad of Søgaard.

Still deadlocked at 3-3 with almost five minutes gone in the final period, Kastelic redirected a shot with his leg for the go-ahead marker to give Calgary their first lead of the afternoon.

Toronto Maple Leafs prospect Riley Stotts added two more goals for Calgary before the final buzzer sounded, putting a bow on a wild comeback victory for the Hitmen.

In a rare feat this season the Tigers were outshot by their opponents, losing the shots battle 46-35 to Calgary with Søgaard being pulled with eight minutes remaining for Garin Bjorklund.

Søgaard was credited with the loss with six goals allowed on 42 shots, while Bjorklund stopped all four shots he saw.

Dropping their first game in regulation since September 29, the 8-3-1-0 Tigers trail only the Edmonton Oil Kings for first in the Central Division.

Continuing their season-long road trip on Friday night, Medicine Hat heads north to Edmonton for a mammoth tilt against their divisional rivals at 7:00 pm.