Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Medicine Hat 5 Kootenay 4 SO

From Chris Wahl ... http://www.kootenayice.net/article/ice-edged-in-medicine-hat-shootout
Trevor Cox scored the shootout winner as the Medicine Hat Tigers edged the Kootenay ICE 5-4 Tuesday.

Cox, the reigning Canadian Hockey League Player of the Week, broke a 1-1 tie in the shootout as Medicine Hat completed multiple comebacks to collect the victory on home ice.

The ICE held a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes of play, opening the scoring 8:44 into the opening frame on a quick snapshot from Jaedon Descheneau. It was the St. Louis Blues prospect's 20th goal of the season.

Kootenay's Tyler King rifled home a power-play marker with 1:07 remaining in the period to double the ICE lead.

The Tigers answered back quickly in the second period. First, defenseman Kyle Becker tucked home a goal from close range 1:28 into the frame before Cole Sanford tied the game at 2-2 on a power-play a minute later.

The Kootenay offense continued to click, with Philp burying his 16th goal of the season 2:03 after Sanford's equalizer.

Medicine Hat found another tying goal on a late power-play, again through Becker, who scored his tenth goal of the season. The ICE reclaimed the lead before the period was out, though, as Philp put home his second goal of the period on a nifty passing play with Descheneau and Tim Bozon.

Medicine Hat tied the game at 4-4 at the midway mark of the third period on a Matt Staples point shot that found its way through traffic past ICE goaltender Wyatt Hoflin.

The ICE killed three straight penalties in the last half of the third period, and were awarded a penalty shot when Descheneau was impeded on a partial break, but the 19 year-old shot high on Tigers netminder Marek Langhamer.

Neither side was able to score in overtime, with Langhamer making 38 saves through 65 minutes of play as Kootenay outshot Medicine Hat 41-30.

Sanford opened the scoring in the shootout, but his goal was quickly cancelled out by Bozon. Cox's goal in the fourth round of the breakaway competition secured the win for the Tigers after Philp was stopped by Langhamer on Kootenay's final attempt.

Philp and Descheneau each finished with four points. First-year defenseman Cale Fleury also chipped in with an assist.

Hoflin set a new franchise record with his 26th consecutive appearance, breaking a mark set five years ago by Todd Mathews.

Descheneau and Bozon both extended point streaks to six games Tuesday.

The ICE finished 1-4 on the power play, while Medicine Hat scored two man-advantage goals on eight opportunities.

UP NEXT: the ICE ring in 2015 with a matchup in Red Deer Friday, January 2nd. Game time is 7:00 pm.