Hollett gets start but Tigers don’t discount Bullion

By Ryan McCracken on March 23, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

When the lights go down and the crowd rises up, Jordan Hollett will be leading the way.

The Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender will be the man between the pipes when the puck drops for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference quarter-final series against the Brandon Wheat Kings tonight at 7:30 p.m.

Tigers head coach Shaun Clouston says he will treat the goaltending situation the same way he has all season, on a game-by-game basis. As a result, Hollett’s counterpart in the crease, Michael Bullion, could also make his way into the action at some point in the series.

“They’re both very good goaltenders,” said Clouston. “They both played a big part in our success this season and I think the fact that we’ve had two guys we could go back and forth with allowed us to have success.”

Hollett returned from a knee injury for the final game of the regular season after being held away from the ice for 16 contests. The 6-foot-5, 210-pound netminder stopped 20 shots in his return, a 3-2 loss to the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

“I think going straight into a playoff game after not playing for quite a while would be a bit nerve-racking,” said Hollett. “I guess you could say it helps getting that first game out of the way, just to have that starting point and know you’re going to build off that and get even better for the playoffs when it really matters.”

Bullion backed the Tigers to a four-game sweep of the Wheat Kings to start the playoffs last year, but plenty has changed in the 364 days since the two teams last met at the Canalta Centre to open the first round.

Hollett and Bullion equally shared the crease this season when both were available to play, and they closed out the year with strikingly similar statistics.Hollett finished with a 3.43 goals against average, an .896 save percentage and a 16-13-4-0 record, while Bullion rounded out the year at 3.19 and .891 with a 20-15-3-0 record — which included back-to-back shutouts and a 10-5-0-0 playoff push with Hollett on the injured reserve.

“It’s been a great year having him as my partner,” Hollett said of Bullion. “It’s usually always a special bond between the two goalies because only they know what each other are going through and it’s been great. I’d like to say that he’s been unbelievable to me and I hope I’ve been good to him as well. It’s been a good relationship, it usually always is, but I think this year surpassed my expectations quite a bit.”

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