Hollett hopes to return to Tigers lineup Saturday

By Ryan McCracken on March 16, 2018.

rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com @MHNMcCracken

Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Jordan Hollett is back in the nick of time.

The sixth-round Senators draft pick made the trip to Ottawa over the weekend and got the green light from by his big league club after missing the past 15 games with a knee injury. While nothing is concrete, Hollett says he hopes to return for his team’s regular season finale against the Lethbridge Hurricanes Saturday (7:30 p.m., Canalta Centre).

“The plan is to hopefully get in there by at least Saturday. Hopefully nothing goes wrong, I don’t want to jinx anything, but I think that’s definitely what we’re gunning for and it’s what should happen,” said Hollett. “It’s been a bit of a long road but I’m feeling a lot better and getting a lot closer.”

Hollett was selected 183rd overall in the 2017 NHL entry draft, one month after being traded to Medicine Hat from the Regina Pats in exchange for Matt Bradley. Last week’s visit to the nation’s capital was his just his second time visiting the Senators since joining Ottawa’s system. While Hollett attended development camp with the Sens in July, the 17-year-old Langley product missed out on the chance to attend pre-season training camp in the due to a case of mono — one that postponed his Tigers debut until Oct. 6.

This trip made up for all that.

“It was good. I was working with the goalie coach a lot and obviously their therapist I worked with a ton. Lots of hours in the gym and on the ice, then also doing little rehab exercises. It was good to go there, I think they sped up my recovery,” he said. “It was nice to go there. They have quite a few more resources than Mikki (Lanuk, Tigers athletic trainer) has — as great as he’s been with my injury, he’s been helping me out a ton and that’s one of the main reasons I’m back, but that trip (to Ottawa) helped a lot as well.”

Hollett suffered the injury while preventing an odd-man rush in a game against the Vancouver Giants on Feb. 3. What Hollett describes as a simple play quickly become far more complicated.

“It was a weird incident and probably a play that I’ve done a million times in my career, but unfortunately one little way that I moved wasn’t quite the way my body wanted to and here we are,” said Hollett. “It’s definitely a huge challenge to try to do all those little things by yourself and do all the work behind the scenes where you’re not getting the reward of playing and showing how much you have progressed. Hopefully I’ll be able to do that really soon.”

With any luck, Hollett will get a game in before the playoffs start next Friday at the Canalta Centre, as they’re sure to face a stiff challenge against either the Regina Pats or Brandon Wheat Kings in the first round. While the Tigers hold home ice advantage and the Central Division crown, both potential opponents boast a better record and a season series victory.

The Wheat Kings (38-27-3-2) currently hold the first wildcard and will likely stay there, as they would need to win their final two games against the Moose Jaw Warriors while Regina lost twice to the Saskatoon Blades.

The Tigers swept the Wheat Kings in the first round of the playoffs last season, but Brandon won this year’s season series against Medicine Hat 3-0-1-0. All four games in the season series went to overtime.

The Tigers will kick off the post-season with Game 1 on Friday, March 23 at the Canalta Centre at 7:30 p.m. Game 2 is set for Sunday, March 25 at 6 p.m.

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