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Tigers losing streak reaches five games after falling in Lethbridge

Feb 22, 2019 | 8:56 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB — Rookie Corson Hopwo recorded his first multi-goal game of his career, but the Medicine Hat Tigers couldn’t hold off a high-powered Lethbridge Hurricanes offence in a 6-3 loss at the Enmax Centre on Friday night.

Medicine Hat (31-23-3-2) has now lost five in a row, matching their longest losing streak of the season. They remain third place in the WHL’s Central Division, now sitting five points back of Lethbridge (31-17-5-5) in second and seven behind the first-place Edmonton Oil Kings. Red Deer sits four points back and outside of the final wild-card playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

Hopwo’s two tallies came alongside Tigers alternate captain Ryan Chyzowski’s 20th marker of the campaign.

The Hurricanes collected goals from five different players. Jake Elmer, Logan Barlage, Jake Leschyshyn and Taylor Ross each scored single tallies, and captain Jordie Bellerive lit the lamp twice including an empty-netter.

Medicine Hat struck once on eight power-play opportunities, while Lethbridge capitalized twice on six chances with the man-advantage.

Lethbridge now holds a slight edge in their season series against Medicine Hat, winning four of seven games. They’ll play twice more, including Saturday night at the Canalta Centre, this season.

Mads Søgaard allowed five or more goals for the third straight game, stopping 34 of 39 shots fired his way. Although he’s hit a lull in his rookie campaign, the Danish netminder still boasts an impressive save percentage of 0.924 and goals against average of 2.56.

Carl Tetachuk stopped 31 of 34 shots to collect his third victory in four games for the Hurricanes.

As is usually the case when these two Highway 3 rivals clash, tempers flared at several times through the game. A combined 42 penalty minutes were racked up by both teams, including five-minute majors for fighting given to Tigers defenceman Trevor Longo and Hurricanes defenceman Nolan Jones in the third period.

Medicine Hat will look to avoid a sixth straight loss on Saturday, hosting Lethbridge to wrap up a home-and-home series at the Canalta Centre (7:30 p.m.).