NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Evan May embraces contact while making a save in the first period of their 3-2 loss to the Lethbridge Hurricanes Saturday night at Co-op Place.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Coming off a losing weekend the Medicine Hat Tigers know they can and must be better if they want to have a successful season.
“Our last little stints have been tough just with the way things have gone, and everyone’s saying we’re right there but that’s not good enough,” said Tigers captain Owen MacNeil after a 3-2 loss Saturday against the Lethbridge Hurricanes. “We have to find ways to be winning those games and find ways to win (close) games. This is the Western League, teams are going to play hard every night, so there’s no easy night and we’ve got to figure out ways to win those games.”
The Tigers find themselves in a five-game losing streak after falling to Lethbridge at Co-op Place on Saturday night 24 hours after losing 5-1 to the Calgary Hitmen on the road Friday. After the weekend, their record sits at 4-8-3, putting them in 10th place of the WHL’s Eastern conference.
Head coach Willie Desjardins said after Saturday’s loss his team needs to be better and that it comes down to habits.
“The thing with habits is they just take time, they don’t just happen overnight, they take time,” Desjardins said. “At the start of the year some teams were shocked that we were that much better than we were last year, that we were quicker and we capitalized, but teams are ready for us now.”
“Every night we have a good game, it’s not like we don’t have good games, even in Calgary it’s tight going into the third. So it’s way, way, way better than last year, like no comparison. But we want to make the playoffs this year, we want to make them and if we’re going to make the playoffs we have to get better.”
Through 15 games last season the Tigers were 4-11 and would go another 10 games without a win. This year’s group has remained more positive than that team, and in the eyes of Dallon Melin, who was not on the Tigers last-place 2021-22 team, they have not and can not accept the losing.
“It seems like when some things go right and then others go wrong, it’s completely opposite the next game, so it’s just the way it goes sometimes but we have to keep fighting through it,” Melin said. “We have to have every guy in there playing all the time and have every guy bought in. We can’t get into a pattern of accepting losing, so we’re not going to do that.”
Melin scored late in the third period Saturday to bring the Tigers within one of Lethbridge. Andrew Basha scored the other goal, five seconds into the final frame. Pasha Bocharov scored the Tigers lone goal against the Hitmen.
While the Tigers look to break out of their slide, Desjardins says they will stay positive because that’s their only option if they want to succeed.
“What’s your other choice, quit? Get real negative? It would be one thing if our guys aren’t trying, but our guys are trying and we’ve talked about this, we knew that we are building a younger group, that does take time and it’s not what you want.” Desjardins said. “But we’re there, it’s not like we’re a long ways away, there’s lots of games we could find ways to win.”
That has been the constant message throughout the Tigers room as they navigate the early season slide, finding ways to win the close games. Whether they are carrying a two-goal lead into the third or trailing by one, the goal is to capitalize on opportunities and get themselves back into a winning fashion. Until that happens, it’s about remaining positive and continuing to work hard to avoid what happened last year.
“Great teams have lapses and we kind of find ourselves in one right now,” said MacNeil. “But I think we just have to stick to it and be positive. It’s a huge week for us coming up to regroup, put our heads down and go to work again to find ways to win next weekend and early in the week.”
“But it’s just sticking together. We have a real good group and we believe in each other. So it’s just about finding ways to get through it.”
The Tigers host the Prince Albert Raiders for a 7 p.m. game tonight at Co-op Place before starting a home-and-home series with the Moose Jaw Warriors on Friday and Saturday. Friday at Co-op Place is the Tigers’ CHL on TSN game of the season.
“Every game we come in with the mindset that we need to win, but we’re getting desperate here and it’s time to step up our game, Tuesday’s huge,” Melin said.
