By Patrick Burles - @PatrickBurles on Twitter

Tigers even series with 3-2 overtime win over Hurricanes

Apr 13, 2017 | 1:02 AM

LETHBRIDGE – The Medicine Hat Tigers came to play Wednesday night (Apr. 12), and even an inspired performance in the Lethbridge Hurricanes’ net wouldn’t be enough to stop them.

The Tigers evened-up the second-round series with the ‘Canes at two-wins-apiece, with a 3-2 overtime win.

That score is more than a little deceptive though for those who didn’t witness the contest first hand, as the Tigers dominated long stretches of game four at the Enmax Centre. The only thing that kept it from turning into a blowout was the rock-solid evening of Hurricanes’ goaltender, Stuart Skinner.

Facing the prospect of potentially going down three-games-to-one, the Tigers showed an early edge, winning virtually every foot-race for loose pucks and dominating the shot clock.

Despite struggling under a relentless Tigers’ forecheck, the Hurricanes managed to jump ahead 2-0 in the first, on goals from WHL leading playoff scorer Giorgio Estephan and his line mate, Egor Babenko. It marked the first time in the series that Lethbridge opened the scoring, after falling behind by at least two goals in each of the first three games.

Week-in-review: Federal Budget, water agreements and success for tourism industry

Apr 20, 2024

What's Happening in Lethbridge this weekend: April 19, 2024

Apr 19, 2024

What's Happening in Lethbridge this week: April 15, 2024

Apr 15, 2024

Ironically, it would be a Medicine Hat penalty one minute into the second that would really get the Tigers going. They not only killed the penalty, but had the better scoring chances during their two minutes shorthanded. Seizing the momentum, they proceeded to pepper Skinner, forcing him to make a number of highlight reel saves. But he could only do it for so long.

Chad Butcher finally snuck one past Skinner with just under two minutes to play in the second frame, burying a rebound after being left alone on the ‘Canes doorstep.

The onslaught continued into the third – fueled by seemingly countless Lethbridge turnovers – and Max Gerlach tied the score 2-2 on the power play with 6:32 left in regulation.

The Hurricanes bounced back significantly in overtime, trading quality chances with the Tigers, until John Dahlstrom deflated Lethbridge fans, connecting on a one-timer in the slot and completing the comeback.

Coming off a game in which Skinner stopped 56 of 59 shots – many of which left fans in amazement – he noted that he actually enjoyed the challenge, and thought he could have been better.

“I can’t blame [my teammates], I thought if I came out with a couple saves we obviously could have won the game, so honestly, I kind of put it on me,” said Skinner.

Hurricanes’ head coach, Brent Kisio, wasn’t quite so kind in his assessment of his team’s play.

“I think it’s just the urgency, when we want it and we’re playing hard, we’ve been playing well. I thought tonight, you could see the team that was behind wanted it more than we did, and they came out harder and did things more correctly as far as sticking to the details,” stated Kisio.

“We weren’t managing the puck very well, we were turning it over, and against a team like Medicine Hat, you turn the puck over, it’s going the other way real quick,” he continued. “So, we’ve got a lot of things to clean up, but we’ve played some good games this series, we’ve just got to get back to it.”

Game five goes Friday night (Apr. 14) in Medicine Hat.