Tigers shift focus back to Central Division

By Ryan McCracken on December 15, 2017.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

After a grueling stretch of 13 consecutive games against opponents from different divisions — one that included five contests against CHL Top 10 teams —the Medicine Hat Tigers are finally turning their attention back to the Central.

Medicine Hat has struggled with a 4-7-2-0 record through the span, but after allowing the first goal in 10 of those contests — five of which were one-goal affairs — Tigers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston says the solution is simple.

“It’s important that we start better than we have. Honestly, that’s probably the No. 1 focus, we have to have better starts,” said Clouston, whose Tigers will look to shake off a three-game losing skid when they welcome the Red Deer Rebels to the Canalta Centre for tonight’s 7:30 p.m. matchup. “It’s tough. We’re dinged up a little bit with a lot of guys coming off of illness. We’re going to have to really hunker down and be much better early on in the game to try and give us some ground to stand on so we can put 60 minutes together.”

The Tigers will likely be without forwards Gary Haden and Hayden Ostir for tonight’s tilt, though goaltender Jordan Hollett is expected to start after dealing with illness earlier in the week. Ostir jammed his finger over the weekend and currently has no timetable for return, while Haden has been under the weather since Wednesday’s 6-3 loss to the Tri-City Americans.

“He’s not feeling great and we’re trying to figure out what it is, whether it’s illness or a concussion,” Clouston said of Haden.

While it’s been a tough stretch, the Tigers have still managed to maintain a six-point lead on the top of the Central Division at 17-13-2-0 entering eight straight divisional matchups.

Centre Max Gerlach says he feels the Tigers have been right there with many of the powerhouse teams they’ve taken on over the past few weeks, but that doesn’t mean they’ll be taking this weekend’s matchups against Red Deer (9-18-4-1) and the Edmonton Oil Kings (7-21-3-0) lightly.

“The positives are that we’ve been playing a lot of good hockey, a lot of good periods where we’ve taken over teams and dominated teams. We dominated Portland for a couple periods and Moose Jaw and P.A.” said Tigers forward Max Gerlach. “Red Deer is a team that’s hungry. They just traded (Lane) Zablocki away but that’s not going to slow them down at all. They’re still a team that’s pretty young and firey so we’re going to have to be on our A-game and use our speed to get them back on their heels.”

While Gerlach will be in the lineup, he’s been sporting a cage on his helmet ever since being slashed in the face by Prince Albert Raiders defenceman Brayden Pachal on Oct. 7 — and it looks like the cage is going to stay on well into the new year.

“Right away I thought I was only going to be in the cage for about two weeks, but it’s turned out to be about two months already and it looks like I’ll be in it about two months more,” said Gerlach. “I won’t be able to get it off until my tooth is back in and I won’t get that until February. It’s going to take a little bit longer than I wanted it to but my neck and my head are all good now and I’m able to play every night. Obviously the cage is a little bit brutal to be wearing each and every day but it’s just a precautionary thing.”

The Tigers head to Edmonton Saturday to take on the Oil Kings before taking a 10-day break for the holidays.