It was a battle of the two top ranked teams in the CHL and it would prove to live up to all the hype and more, incredibly horrific officiating not-withstanding. The Medicine Hat squad had dropped their last two games after ending their 7 game winning streak earlier in the week. The Vancouver team had just lost their first game of the season in regulation the night before in Red Deer, where a much better Rebels team taught them the lesson of not coming out to play from the drop of the puck. Both squads wanted bragging rights. Both teams were hungry to stop their losing from becoming a habit and both teams were very aware of what this game could mean far down the road. It would be the first of two contests between the two squads in the regular season with both games to be decided on Tiger ice.

The game opened with fireworks of the fisticuff variety. 2 seconds into the first period Garet Hunt and Derek Dorsett dropped the mitts for a middle fly-weight tilt which had both combatants trading punch for punch starting out with their rights and then switching to their lefts later in the long bout, which neither fighter clearly won. Then, off of the ensuing face-off the heavyweights stepped in for their proverbial kicks at the can. Milan Lucic and Jordan Bendfeld squared off and much like the previous fight traded blows, although of the heavier variety. Both battlers got their licks in and at the end with blood streaming from over Bendfeld’s eye they agreed to stop. Both players had to leave the ice to get stitched up as Lucic was cut around his lip and Bendfeld needed to get the gash on his brow looked after.

After the two teams got back to playing hockey Derek Zalaski proved why he is widely thought of as one of the more incompetent refs in the league, calling very marginal almost invisible penalties to send the game into a contest of special teams. The Tigers were hungry to get out on top and used the energy from their sold out crowd to push the Giants back on their heels for most of the period forcing the Vancouver squad to weather several back-to-back-to-back penalties. The Giants garnered a very uncharacteristic 3 shots on goal in the first period and the aggressive play and tight checking of the Tigers was a good deal of the reason. The Tigers managed to get one late in the period four on four. A nice chip pass by Trevor Glass to Brennan Bosch who cruised in on the left wing and snapped the puck past Sexsmith. The home squad were up by one going into the first intermission, out-shooting their opponents 14-3.

The Giants started the second on the PP and made no mistake as they put together what has become a set play where the face-off at centre ice is won back to the D and both defenseman skate on the outside in force on the offense. Cody Franson took the clean face-off and he and defensive partner Brendan Mikkelson stormed into the Tiger zone as a unit. Franson used Mikkelson as a decoy and snapped the puck five-hole on Ryan Holfeld to tie the game 6 seconds into the second period on the man-advantage. A few minutes later, again on the PP, Spencer Machacek redirected Franson’s shot to put the G-Men up by one. Then two minutes after that Tim Kraus and Kyle lamb combined to put the Vancouver team up by two. Off the rush Lamb fed Kraus in the slot who waited for the goalie to commit and then feathered the puck back onto Lamb’s stick. Kyle still had to lift the puck over the out-stretched glove of Holfeld as the ‘tender had recovered and regained a solid position to make the stop. Franson made it a three goal lead (once again on the PP) late in the second wristing a seeing eye puck through traffic for his second of the game and his third point of the night. The Tigers far from being down and out would get one back with under a minute to go for their first goal off of the man-advantage when highly touted defenseman Kris Russell threaded a wrist shot past a screened Tyson Sexsmith, getting the crowd back into the game in the process.

The Tigers were eager to come back in the third and the refs for the most part put the whistle in the pocket, but pulled it out again just long enough to give the Medicine Hat squad a man-advantage about 4 minutes into the third period. Tyler Swystun, standing at the side of the net, squeezed the puck behind Sexsmith who was not tight against his post on the play. The hockey would prove to be fast and furious as both teams got the chance to play five on five hockey the way it was meant to be played and neither team gave an inch until very late in the period. They traded PP’s late in the third but it would be the Tigers who would capitalize with a mere 2 seconds left in the game. The Giants failed to clear the puck deep in their zone and the puck got turned over behind the net. The Tigers batted the puck out front and it went off a Tiger skate to the open side where Dorsett tipped it into the open side to tie the game and earn at least a point for both teams.

The ensuing overtime started out fairly tenuous, but would change when Spencer Machacek drew a holding penalty by keeping his feet moving and protecting the puck as he wheeled around a fatigued Kris Russell who had no option but grab Machacek from behind. The Giants would win the game off of the face-off as Franson garnered his hat-trick off of a wicked one-timer fed cross-ice to him from Mikkelson. After the game, I actually wondered what kind of game we would have seen had the two teams been allowed the latitude to compete hard and fairly and the officials not being so prevalent throughout the contest. The hockey in the third five on five was excellent. Solid chances for both teams playing pretty much as they had for the majority of the game, but without all the whistles.

The shots were 35-32 in favour of the Tigers which is a change for the Giants who usually out-shoot their opponents two to one. The special teams were very busy as the Giants went 4 for 12 on the PP, and the Tigers managed to get 3 on their 14 opportunities. The Giant’s next tilt is versus the Calgary Hitmen who are on a roll of their own pounding Medicine Hat 7-2 by taking control in the third after a tightly played game throughout the first two periods.

Three Stars
1 – Cody Franson
2 – Kris Russell
3 – David Schlemko