NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Dallon Melin braces against the boards while playing the puck in the first period of their 3-2 overtime loss to the Vancouver Giants on Tuesday at Co-op Place.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
A few Medicine Hat Tigers are reaching milestone plateaus to start the season.
Forward Oasiz Wiesblatt hit his 100th game played in the WHL in the Tigers 2-1 overtime loss Tuesday against the Vancouver Giants.
The 18-year-old made his debut in the 2019-20 season and has scored 19 goals and 43 points in his first 100 games. Wiesblatt was glad he could reach the milestone at home and says it came quicker than he expected.
“I saw my poster right when I got out there and it’s just a really cool experience and I couldn’t be happier than to spend my 100 games here and I look forward to way more than that,” Wiesblatt said. “I didn’t really think about it and when the game came I was like holy, a 100 warm-ups, it’s crazy.”
Holding up a poster congratulating him on the milestone during warmups was his billet family. He learned that after getting home from the game and seeing the poster there.
His biggest takeaway from his first 100 games is to keep your teammates close because they are family.
“You can tell each other anything you want and just kind of make it a family relationship. I know for my first year, that was huge during COVID,” Wiesblatt said. “Not being around each other all the time, but it was a really family group. Then last year, we obviously went through some tough times but the end of the day, we all stuck together.”
He described this year’s Tigers as an energetic family.
“We all support each other but we also want to push each other to get better every day,” Wiesblatt said. “We’re a hungry group and we have a reason for that. We’re just trying to prove people wrong and just keep going.”
They’ll keep trying to prove people wrong as they hit the road tonight to face the Calgary Hitmen for the first time this season. That game will mark No. 200 on the season for 20-year-old Dallon Melin. It will be his 13th as a Tiger, with the first 187 coming as a member of the Red Deer Rebels.
Melin says it’s an honour he takes pride in and never expected but had it as one of his goals when he was younger.
“I played with some awesome guys who played a lot of games. When I was 16, Brendan Hagel and Jeff De Witt were 20-years-old and they were up pushing 300 because they played the full 68 games for five years,” Melin said. “I didn’t get that, so when the COVID year happened I set my goal and thought 200 was the new 250 or 300.”
Melin has 25 goals and 57 points through his first 199 WHL games. He says he appreciates Red Deer for giving him his chance in the league and for the Tigers on giving him an opportunity and a role in his last season.
Melin says his key to longevity is having to sometimes play through pain to stay on the ice for the love of the game.
“You have to be able to push through things and obviously you’re not healthy all the time, you’re not feeling great all the time,” Melin said. “But you have to do what you have to do and I think it was just something that I’ve had since I was a little kid. I never wanted to miss games, it didn’t matter if I was sick or if I was hurting, I wanted to play.”
