By Scott Roblin

Tigers edged in overtime by Hurricanes in pre-season opener

Sep 1, 2018 | 10:38 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – Plenty of fight from the Medicine Hat Tigers on Friday night, but they couldn’t contain the Lethbridge Hurricanes in a 5-4 overtime loss to open the pre-season.

Medicine Hat fought back from 3-1 and 4-3 deficits to end the game into overtime, however it was Hurricanes veteran Jordy Bellerive giving the Hurricanes the win in the extra frame.

Seventeen-year-old Corson Hopwo netted Medicine Hat’s first goal of the pre-season just 2:19 into the contest, tipping a point shot past Lethbridge’s Reece Klassen.

Coming off a successful penalty-kill, Lethbridge tied up the game at 1-1 midway through the period as Jake Elmer slid a cross-crease pass to Nick Dorrington for his first of the pre-season.

Late in the frame, Medicine Hat struggled to clear the puck out of the zone which allowed Bellerive to receive a pass from Keltie Jeri-Leon and beat Mads Sogaard on the power play to make it 2-1 Lethbridge at the break.

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The Hurricanes extended their lead to 3-1 just over seven minutes into the second, as Elmer banked a pass off a Tigers defender on the man advantage that fooled Sogaard.

At the midway point of the second, the Danish giant was swapped out for Kaeden Lane after allowing three goals on 16 shots.

Medicine Hat’s 2018 first-round pick Cole Sillinger scored his first goal wearing a Tigers jersey on Friday, sniping one on the power play in the slot with 2:55 left in the second to close the gap to 3-2.

Just seconds later, some pretty passing from Medicine Hat found sophomore forward Dawson Heathcote open to rip his first of the pre-season and tie the game at 3-3 after 40 minutes.

Friday’s game didn’t stay tied for long however, as Jeri-Leon picked the puck up off a Hurricanes face-off win and waited out Lane to give Lethbridge the lead back early in the third.

Medicine Hat managed to tie the game up once again with 6:17 left in regulation, with Kadyn Chabot being sprung on a breakaway out of the penalty box and going five-hole to make it 4-4.

It took only 24 seconds of overtime action for Lethbridge to pick up the victory however, as Bellerive charged towards a rebound to spin around and score on the backhand to seal the win.

Scoring two goals on the night, it was Bellerive’s first game with the Hurricanes since being involved in an accidental explosion over the summer that left him hospitalized.

As for the Tigers, Lane stopped 20 of the 22 shots he faced in 30 minutes of action, while Caleb Willms had a team-high two points with a pair of assists.

Medicine Hat and Lethbridge will tangle in a neutral-site contest on Saturday night, as they continue WHL pre-season action at the Taber Civic Centre at 7:30 pm.