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By Scott Roblin

Overtime Heartbreaker

Chippy tilt in Calgary turns sour for Tigers, lose seventh straight in OT

Nov 14, 2021 | 7:27 PM

CALGARY, AB – Penalties were the story of Sunday’s matinee affair between the Medicine Hat Tigers and Calgary Hitmen, and one final penalty proved to be the difference.

In a chippy, penalty-filled affair the Tigers lost their seventh consecutive game with a 4-3 overtime loss to the Hitmen to close out the weekend.

Calgary’s Riley Fiddler-Schultz scored with 1:21 left in the extra frame on the power play, after Tigers forward Corson Hopwo was booked with a hooking call midway through overtime.

It was an ironic twist for a Tigers penalty kill that was put to the test 11 times over the course of Sunday’s contest, killing off nine of them.

The Hitmen got out to an early 1-0 lead for the second straight game with Zac Funk tipping a Fiddler-Schultz shot past Garin Bjorklund just 3:29 into the first period.

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Ashton Ferster was able to tie up the game at 1-1 in the opening minute of the second frame however, picking up a beautiful pass by Hopwo on the power play for his third straight game with a goal.

Medicine Hat took their first lead of the afternoon a minute and a half later also on the man advantage thanks to a wicked wrist shot from the right dot by Lukas Svejkovsky.

Just as the Tigers’ special teams began to roll, the Hitmen answered back shortly after with a power play goal of their own courtesy of defender Grayden Siepmann going five-hole on Bjorklund.

That would kick off a string of penalties for both the Tigers and Hitmen resulting in three fights over a span of less than a minute in the second frame that led to Medicine Hat’s Carlin Dezainde and Calgary’s Tyson Galloway receiving game misconducts.

In all, there would be 86 minutes in penalties dished out to both teams on Sunday.

Medicine Hat finally broke through in the third period with their third power play goal of the day from Hopwo, taking the lead again with 12:39 to play in regulation.

That was until Calgary tied up the contest at 3-3 with six and a half minutes to go following several chances in front of the Tigers net, finally put home by Sean Tschigerl.

In overtime, Hopwo was booked on a hook on Calgary’s Jackson van de Leest which set up the Hitmen for a 4-on-3 advantage which was finished off by Fiddler-Schultz.

Despite giving up four goals on Sunday, Bjorklund was outstanding between the Medicine Hat pipes with a season-high 43 save performance.

Hitmen rookie goaltender Ethan Buenaventura meanwhile earned his first career WHL victory in his first start with a 28-save night.

Falling to a 4-7-3-1 record amid this seven-game slide, the Tigers are now off until Friday night when they face the Lethbridge Hurricanes for the first time this season on the road.c