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By Scott Roblin

Eye of the Storm

Early lead dries up for Tigers in 6-4 road loss to Hurricanes

Dec 17, 2021 | 10:25 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – A lightning quick start by the Medicine Hat Tigers vanished into thin air on Friday night, falling back to earth in a 6-4 loss kicking off their weekend in Lethbridge.

Medicine Hat allowed three goals on six shots against in the second period and struggled to contain the Hurricanes on the penalty kill, losing their second game of the season against their Highway 3 rivals.

Lukas Svejkovsky needed just 50 seconds to open the scoring for Medicine Hat on Friday, picking off a drop pass at the opposing blue line and scoring far-side shorthanded.

The Tigers doubled that lead to 2-0 under three minutes later as sophomore blueliner Reid Andresen sent a harmless looking shot from the nearside boards past Jared Picklyk to give the visitors all the momentum.

A tricky thing momentum is though, as the Hurricanes began peppering Beckett Langkow with shots over the next 15 minutes and finally breaking through with a Justin Hall backdoor tip-in with 4:33 left in the period.

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Goals from Logan Barlage and Ty Nash over the first nine minutes of the second frame quickly erased Medicine Hat’s early lead, with the latter scored on the power play off a Tigers defender and in.

Medicine Hat was quick to respond after Nash’s goal with Oren Shtrom and Owen MacNeil teaming up on a nifty give and go play, finished off by Shtrom for his third goal in two games to tie the contest at 3-3.

Just as the Tigers were able to capitalize on turnovers early, the Hurricanes did so themselves with Jett Jones picking the pocket of Medicine Hat’s Tomas Mrsic in his first career WHL game and using his big frame to restore Lethbridge’s lead with just over a minute before the buzzer.

The ‘Canes added goals courtesy of Hall and Noah Boyko in the third to take a commanding 6-3 lead and while Brayden Boehm scored late on the power play to bring the Tabbies to within two goals, their night would end in defeat.

Mrsic was held pointless in his WHL debut for Medicine Hat, while Langkow made 26 saves in the loss to the Hurricanes.

The Tigers wrap up their home-and-home series against Lethbridge on Saturday night at Co-Op Place at 7:00 pm in what will be their final game before the holiday break.