By Scott Roblin

Lockner, Preziuso shine for Tigers in comeback win over Rebels

Nov 25, 2018 | 10:45 AM

RED DEER, AB – A statement victory for the Medicine Hat Tigers in Red Deer on Saturday night, relying on their leadership group to pull out a 7-3 victory over the Rebels.

Trailing in both the first and second periods, the Tigers came alive in the second half of Saturday’s contest to take down the top squad in the Central Division.

Medicine Hat didn’t get off to the best of starts allowing a Josh Tarzwell goal two minutes in, before Tarzwell set up Arshdeep Bains just minutes later to take a 2-0 lead.

Tigers coach Shaun Clouston elected to use his time out less than five minutes in to settle the troops, a decision that seemingly paid off just over a minute later.

Off a Linus Nassen shot on the wing, assistant captain Bryan Lockner hopped on the rebound to bury his sixth of the season to cut the Rebels lead to 2-1.

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With a little over five minutes to go in the first period, James Hamblin found Josh Williams who converted on a cross-ice pass to the backhand to beat Rebels goalie Ethan Anders to tie up the game before the first intermission.

Six minutes into the second period, Cole Clayton was stripped of the puck by Red Deer’s Chris Douglas who skated alone on a breakaway to beat Mads Sogaard to give the Rebels the lead again.

Tyler Preziuso answered quickly for the Tigers however, as he picked up a loose puck turned over by the Rebels to put a floater past Anders for his first goal in nine games with 5:47 left in the frame.

Medicine Hat took their first lead of the night with 2:22 left in the period, with Clayton teeing up a one-timer for Lockner on the left side for his first two-goal game of his career.

On the power play just over a minute later, the Tigers worked the cycle to perfection and finished off an explosive period with a Hamblin wrist shot at the top of the face-off circle to take a 5-3 lead.

Red Deer pulled Anders at the intermission after he allowed five goals on 20 shots, but it did little to turn aside the Tigers attack in the third period.

Seven minutes into the final frame, Preziuso picked the pocket of Carson Sass behind the Red Deer net and put his second of the evening past Byron Fancy to extend the Tigers lead to three goals.

Trevor Longo got in on the scoring rush with 9:17 left in regulation, completing a perfect give-and-go play with Lockner to score his second career goal and put the final nail in the Red Deer coffin.

Lockner and Preziuso both had a pair of goals in Medicine Hat’s victory, while Hamblin and Clayton also had multi-point efforts.

Sogaard meanwhile improved his record on the season to 6-2-1-2, making 25 saves on 28 Rebels shots on Saturday night.

Picking up two points in a key Central Division meeting, the Tigers remain in the final wild card spot in the Eastern Conference with 25 points, two points ahead of the Calgary Hitmen on their heels.

Medicine Hat will face Red Deer again on Wednesday night at 7:00 pm, as the two sides wind up their home and home series at the Canalta Centre with a mid-week contest.