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By Scott Roblin

5-2 Loss

Effort improves, penalty kill struggles continue for Tigers in Edmonton

Mar 2, 2022 | 10:41 PM

EDMONTON, AB – It was a bounce back night effort-wise for the Medicine Hat Tigers on Wednesday, but unfortunately it didn’t transfer to the scoresheet.

Offensive chances against the star-studded Edmonton Oil Kings were few and far between for Medicine Hat at Rogers Place, putting just three combined shots on net over the first and third periods to drop their 12th game in a row 5-2.

Edmonton was rock solid on the power play, as the Tigers gave up three goals against while down a skater and weren’t able to get the shot generation they needed to mount a comeback finishing with just 10 shots on the night.

Still, it was a better performance throughout the lineup compared to Medicine Hat’s last two games against Lethbridge and Red Deer where they were outscored a combined 20-3.

Despite Edmonton holding the distinct advantage early when it came to shots, the Tigers jumped into the lead on their first shot of the night 7:19 off the left wing from Oasiz Wiesblatt on a blocker side rip.

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Medicine Hat’s 1-0 lead only held for about two and a half minutes though, with the Oil Kings starting to execute on the power play with Jakub Demek wiring a one-timer off a feed from Kaiden Guhle to tie things up.

A second power play goal of the period came from Josh Williams parked in front of the net picking up a rebound in the slot, while Cole Miller did the exact same with the backhand a few minutes later to quickly stake Edmonton to a 3-1 lead.

Two minutes into the second period off a face-off win from Owen MacNeil, the Tigers climbed back to within a goal with Bogdans Hodass picking up a loose puck and firing his seventh of the year past Sebastian Cossa.

As Medicine Hat began to press a bit more in the frame, it was the Oil Kings answering back with Shea Van Olm cutting towards the front of the net with a nifty deke to restore Edmonton’s two-goal advantage heading into the third.

Edmonton blueliner Simon Kubicek put the game out of reach 1:18 into the third with his club’s third power play goal of the night, securing the 5-2 win in the Oil Kings’ 1,000th regular season game in franchise history.

After being pulled in each of his last two games, Garin Bjorklund stopped 40 of 45 in the Tigers’ crease on Wednesday.

Medicine Hat now gears up for a meeting with the Swift Current Broncos back at Co-Op Place on Saturday night at 7:00 pm, which is slated to be their only game of the weekend.