Tigers come from behind to make it six straight wins over Hitmen

No lead is safe against the Medicine Hat Tigers.

The Calgary Hitmen found that out again Friday night in front of 6,031 fans at the Saddledome.

Jakob Stukel opened the scoring for Calgary with a goal on a twoman advantage at 5:59 of the first period before the Tigers bounced back to win 5-4.

Andrei Grishakov scored twice and had an assist for the Hitmen (23-27-10), while Stukel finished with two goals. Goalie Kyle Dumba made 25 saves in a losing cause.

Medicine Hat has won all six meetings between the two Western Hockey League rivals. In four of those games, the Hitmen found the back of the net first only to see the Tigers storm back to win.

Forward Steven Owre led the way Friday for the Gas City squad with two goals and an assist. Brad Forrest, Tyler Preziuso and Mason Shaw also scored for the Tigers, who sit atop the WHL’s Central Division with a 43-19-1 record.

Medicine Hat goalie and Calgary Flames prospect Nick Schneider made 36 saves to record his ninth straight win over the Hitmen.

Having gone 4-0-1 in their previous five games, the Hitmen were hoping to continue their climb in the Central Division standings. Instead, not much went right.

The Red Deer Rebels (25-27-10) beat the Kootenay Ice 6-4 on home ice and are now four points in front of the Hitmen, although Calgary has two games in hand.

The Hitmen and Rebels will play a crucial home-and-home series beginning Saturday ( 7 p.m., Sportsnet 960 The Fan) in Red Deer before returning to the ’Dome for the rematch Sunday (4 p.m., Sportsnet.ca/960).

Further clouding the playoff picture, the Saskatoon Blades (2429-8) skated to a 3-1 win over the Prince Albert Raiders at home Friday to pull into a tie with the Hitmen for the final wild-card berth in the Eastern Conference. Calgary has a game in hand on Saskatoon.

The Hitmen had a pair of extended two-man advantages in the first period, but only converted one of them as Stukel swatted a loose puck past Schneider.

Owre then scored twice and set up another by Forrest before the end of the opening frame to put the visitors up 3-1.

Stukel took a pass from defence- man Brady Reagan and snapped a shot to the short side past Schneider at 4:19 of the second period before Preziuso swatted his own rebound past Hitmen goaltender Kyle Dumba 32 seconds later.

Schneider made a great save with his left pad to deny a breakaway attempt by Matteo Gennaro, but the Hitmen forward kept pursuing the puck and made a nice backhand pass from behind the net out to Grishakov, who proceeded to pot his eighth goal of the season at 11:46.

The Tigers regained their twogoal lead at 17:02 when Matt Bradley intercepted a clearing attempt by Hitmen captain Micheal Zipp and fed the puck to Shaw, who fired top corner past Dumba.

After killing off a double-penalty in the third period, the Hitmen had several great chances to score, but Schneider turned them all aside including a nice blocker save on Jake Bean.

Schneider also got a bit lucky late in the game when Zipp shovelled a shot through his legs that hit the post and slid across the goal-line before he finally covered it up.

Stukel spun and fired a shot from the slot that beat Schneider with 22.6 seconds left on the clock, but it was too little, too late for the Hitmen.

NOTES: Bean recorded his 100th career WHL assist on Stukel’s first goal … Veteran Hitmen forward Tyler Mrkonjic celebrated his 21st birthday on Friday, while rookie teammate Tristen Nielsen turned 17 on Thursday … Grishakov also had an assist against the Tigers to give him four goals and two helpers in his past five games.