Pats blow 3 goal lead, lose 6-4 to Medicine Hat

For the first time this season the Pats have lost three straight games.

The Pats looked strong off the hop against the WHL’s second place Medicine Hat Tigers and were up 3-0 in the second period, but things started to shift after that.

“I thought we had a really good effort tonight and I thought we got no breaks at all,” head coach John Paddock said after the game, pointing to a non-call on a penalty and a puck getting stuck under defenceman Josh Mahura’s skate as just two examples of this.

“I don’t necessarily think we deserved to lose,” he said. “Not saying they didn’t deserve to win, we just didn’t get breaks.”

It was Austin Wagner that got the Pats started when he made the most of a pass from Adam Brooks to put them up 1-0 early in the period.

The 1-0 score held into the first intermission.

Less than two minutes into the second the Pats struck again with Nick Henry punching in a rebound to make it 2-0.

Less than a minute later Josh Mahura took a shot from near the blue line that flew past Tigers goaltender Michael Bullion and put the Pats up by three.

A shot from the point by Jordan Henderson went over Tyler Brown’s left shoulder about 12 minutes into the second period to put the Tigers on the board.

Brown was beat again at the same spot by Mark Rassell at the 17:10 mark of the period to put Medicine Hat within one, but a costly mistake on the powerplay would give the Pats their two-goal lead back.

Sam Steel was able to get the puck free in the Tigers end and in a blazing breakaway he challenged Bullion and got past him top right side with 1:15 left in the period.

The Pats took the 4-2 lead into the second intermission, but that’s when it started to go the other way.

“(There was a) couple of bad bounces,” Mahura said of the third period. “Obviously when you let in three goals in any period you need to look back and figure out what went wrong for sure, but overall I don’t think we let off the gas.”

A costly turnover in the Tigers end had the Pats on their heels early in the third period. Clayton Kirichenko took advantage, getting past Brown and cutting the Pats lead to one goal.

The period would continue to be bad news for the Pats when Chad Butcher tied things up with about seven minutes left.

Two minutes later Steven Owre scored the eventual game winner after the puck got lost under Mahura’s feet.

“That one was tough,” Mahura admitted. “I heard them calling it was in my feet but I was turning and couldn’t find it and sure enough it ends up in the back of our net.”

With about ninety seconds left the Pats pulled Brown for an extra attacker, but the Tigers would get one more on the Pats in the empty net.

The final score was 6-4.

“That’s just not okay with us,” Mahura concluded. “So we’re going in tomorrow and absolutely we’re going to be desperate.”

The Pats play again Saturday night at home in the Brandt Centre.

Puck drop is at 7 p.m. against the Calgary Hitmen.

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