Spokane Chiefs fall in first trip to Medicine Hat since WHL championship series 3-2

BOX SCOREThe Spokane Chiefs made their first trip to Medicine Hat, Alberta, since the Western Hockey League Championship Series in May. The teams didn’t play for the same stakes on Tuesday, but it was still a close, spirited game between two strong WHL contenders at Co-op Place.

And the same team came out victorious.

Gavin Kor scored the go-ahead goal in the third period in his WHL debut and the Tigers edged the Chiefs 3-2.

Chiefs goalie Carter Esler made 26 saves. Spokane had 17 shots, went 0 for 3 on the power play and 3 for 3 on the kill.

It was tied 2-2 until 8 minutes, 38 seconds into the third. Yaroslav Bryzgalov gathered a loose puck along the right wing wall and fed Kor, who had slipped behind the Chiefs defense in the slot. Kor chipped it past a defenseless Esler before tumbling over the goalie for his first WHL goal.

The Chiefs (4-4-0-0) pulled Esler in favor of an extra skater with 1:40 left and a few seconds later the Tigers were called for too many men, giving the Chiefs a 6-on-4 power play.

Mathis Preston had the best opportunity to tie it with less than 10 seconds left but Medicine Hat goalie Jordan Switzer was able to cover the puck in a goal -crease scrum to preserve the victory.

The Chiefs scored a little more than three minutes into the game when Cohen Harris outraced a Tigers defenseman for a loose puck and whipped a sharp-angle shot past Switzer for his first goal of the season.

Spokane made it 2-0 barely two minutes into the second period. Import forward Elias Pul, in his first WHL game, split the Tigers defense at the blue line and snapped a shot over Switzer’s left shoulder for his first WHL goal.

Three minutes later, Medicine Hat’s Kyle Heger made it a one-goal game again, cleaning up a wraparound attempt by Veeti Väisänen for his first goal of the season.

The Tigers (7-2-0-0) tied it with 29 seconds left in the period when Bryzgalov came in alone, stopped just below the right -wing faceoff dot and beat Esler with a wrister for his third of the year.

The Chiefs play the third tilt of a seasonlong six-game road trip on Wednesday at Lethbridge, Alberta.