Stotts gives Hitmen a lift over Tigers in OT
Riley Stotts scored 47 seconds into overtime to lead the Calgary Hitmen to a 4-3 win over the Medicine Hat Tigers on Wednesday.
Stotts sped into the Medicine Hat zone and around forward Ryan Chyzowski before tucking a shot through goalie Jordan Hollett’s legs to send the 5,505 fans at the Scotiabank Saddledome home happy.
Mark Kastelic continued his hot streak of late with a goal and an assist for the Hitmen (12-206). Kastelic has recorded points in nine of his past 10 games, during which he has scored eight goals to go with six helpers.
Jakob Stukel also had a goal and an assist, while Hunter Campbell also scored. Goalie Nick Schneider made 23 saves to pick up the win in net for the home team.
David Quenneville, Mark Rassell and Max Gerlach scored for the Tigers (21-15-3), who had won four of their previous five games. Hollett finished with 28 saves. Quenneville opened the scoring for the Tigers with his 16th goal of the season — tops among all WHL defenceman — when he one-timed a pass from Dylan MacPherson past Schneider during a power play at 13:35 of the first period.
Kastelic answered right back 3:26 later during a man advantage for the Hitmen with an easy tap-in goal past Hollett, who had lost his stick. Cael Zimmerman did most of the hard work on the goal as he fed a cross-crease pass over to Kastelic after his initial shot hit the post.
After taking a total of 18 shots on net in the first periods of their past four games combined, the Hitmen erupted for 17 in the opening 20 minutes on Wednesday.
Rassell snapped a shot from the slot past Schneider at 1:37 of the second period before Schneider made a pair of great saves to keep the Hitmen within striking distance. After stopping Gary Haden’s breakaway attempt, Schneider kicked out his right pad to kick away a point-blank shot off the stick of Rassell.
Stukel then scored on a breakaway of his own at 8:20. The speedy Hitmen forward out-raced a trio of Tigers for the puck before breaking into the Medicine Hat goal and making a quick move before tucking a forehand shot past Hollett.
The Tigers regained their onegoal advantage 1:42 later when Gerlach converted a nice cross-ice pass from Haden.
The see-saw battle continued at 12:56 of the middle frame when Campbell swatted a rebound past Hollett to pull the Hitmen into a 3-3 tie.
Stukel had a great chance to give the Hitmen their first lead of the game with 30 seconds remaining before the intermission, but his shot rang off the right post behind Hollett.
Schneider stopped another breakaway, this time by Medicine Hat forward Tyler Preziuso, just past the six-minute mark of the third period.
The Hitmen will kick off a stretch of three games in three nights on Friday (7 p.m., Sportsnet.ca/960) when they host the Moose Jaw Warriors.
After travelling to Lethbridge to play the Hurricanes on Saturday (7 p.m., Sportsnet.ca/960), the Hitmen will return home to the Dome Sunday (4 p.m., Sportsnet 960 The Fan) to host the Kelowna Rockets.