Tigers 3 Rebels 2 (SO)
MEDICINE HAT — The Medicine Hat Tigers rallied from 2-0 third period deficit to down the visiting Red Deer Rebels 3-2 in a shootout in Western Hockey League action on Saturday night.
Bretton Cameron and Tristan King scored the only goals of the tie breaking skills competition for the Tigers.
Alex Petrovic and Adam Kambeitz gave the Rebels a 2-0 lead after two periods, for both of them it was their seventh goal of the season.
Matt MacKay started the Medicine Hat rally at 12:34 of the final frame and Emerson Etem tied it up for the Tigers on the power play at 15:35 to send the game into overtime.
The power play goal was the Tiger’s sixth man advantage of the game while the Rebels got just one. On Friday Rebels head coach Jesse Wallin expressed his frustrations about getting the short end of the officiating in a 2-1 overtime win against the Swift Current Broncos in Red Deer where the Broncos held a 9-2 edge in power play opportunities.
Tyler Bunz made 28 saves in regulation and two stops in the shootout to earn the victory in goal. Darcy Kuemper turned away 26 shots and made one save in the shootout to suffer the loss for the Rebels.
For the moment, the Tigers move into fifth place in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with a 38-23-3-5 record, which is one point ahead of the 39-24-0-5 Rebels. Red Deer still has one game in hand.
The Rebels don’t play again until Tuesday when they are in Lethbridge to take on the Hurricanes (19-42-5-3) at 7 p.m.