NEWS PHOTO KELLEN TANIGUCHI
The Tigers celebrate Rhett Parsons first career Western Hockey League goal as his shot from the blueline put Medicine Hat up 2-1 in the second period of Monday’s game against Red Deer.
The Medicine Hat Tigers have put head coach Willie Desjardins back into the franchise record book — the team’s 3-2 win over the Red Deer Rebels on Monday night was Desjardins’ franchise-leading 376th.
“I’m really lucky to be able to coach such a great franchise … and you just look at the history of this team, to ever be part of it is great, to be part of maybe having the most wins is huge too,” said Desjardins post-game. “But saying that, those wins come with the other coaches and with the players. I learned long ago I’m not the guy responsible for the wins, there’s lots of people that put in the time and do it.”
Former head coach Shaun Clouston passed Desjardins’ previous mark of 324 wins in December of 2017, then Desjardins rejoined the team prior to the start of the 2019-20 season.
“Shaun Clouston’s a really good coach and to pass a record that he set, it’s good as well. He did a great job with the franchise and is a good coach. To be able to pass someone like that is kind of special as well,” said Desjardins.
The Tigers threw everything they had toward the Rebel net Monday, with netminder Chase Coward making some impressive saves in his first career Western Hockey League start. Coward stopped 32 of 35 shots in the loss. At the other end of the rink, Beckett Langkow stopped 27 of 29 for Medicine Hat.
The Tigers won the special teams battle in the first period. The home team was in penalty trouble early with Oasiz Wiesblatt and Brayden Boehm each drawing two-minute minors. Medicine Hat’s penalty kill did not give up many quality chances and Langkow stopped the few shots that did get through.
Medicine Hat’s top-ranked power play got to work with just over seven minutes remaining in the opening frame. Lukas Svejkovsky sent a pass to an open Ryan Chyzowski and the Tigers’ captain delivered a laser of a shot labelled to the top right corner.
Just over two minutes later, the visitors responded. Chyzowski attempted to clear the puck, but it bounced to the front of the Tigers’ net where Dallon Melin snapped in a wrister to tie things at one.
The Tabbies tested Coward in the second, sending 17 shots in his direction during the period. The rookie made a number of big saves, including a sprawling stop on a Brett Kemp one-timer in close. The Hat pressure didn’t go unrewarded though — Rhett Parsons’ first career WHL goal put the Tigers back in front.
Kemp sent a cross-ice pass to Parsons at the blue line and Parsons sent a shot through traffic which deflected off Red Deer defender Jace Weir’s stick and into the back of the Rebels net. The defender’s first WHL goal had the home team leading 2-1 after 40 minutes.
“It felt good to get that first one out of the way,” said Parsons. “More importantly we were just going for the third game win here and it’s pretty cool that we could get that for our coach that he goes ahead in the all-time franchise record. So, it was good, good game overall.”
Mid-way through the third period, the Tigers added to their lead with Oren Shtrom’s fourth goal of the season. Kemp wrapped around behind the net and sent a pass across to Shtrom who tapped it past the goal line.
The Rebels added a power play marker with 23.5 seconds left in the game to cut the lead to one. Forward Ben King sent a shot toward the net and Chris Douglas got a stick on it to deflect it past Langkow. The Tigers were able to hold on and win 3-2.
The Tigers swept the three-game series and improved their record to 12-3-0-1, while the Rebels dropped their 12th game in a row to fall to 2-15-2-0 on the season.
Medicine Hat and Red Deer are scheduled to meet again at Co-op Place on Friday night with puck drop at 7 p.m.
