NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers defenceman Pasha Bocharov dances the blue line to make a pass under pressure in the first period of the 2-1 loss against the Saskatoon Blades on Dec. 3 at Co-op Place.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The countdown for Christmas is winding up but the Medicine Hat Tigers have some business to take care of before they can indulge in the festivities.
The Tigers have a two-game home set that gets underway tonight to cap off the first half of their season and begin their Holiday break. They host the Central division leading Red Deer Rebels tonight before facing the Kelowna Rockets on Saturday.
The Tigers enter the weekend slate coming off a split Saskatchewan road trip that included an 8-3 loss in Saskatoon against the Blades on Tuesday and a 3-2 win over the Prince Albert Raiders on Wednesday.
Associate coach Joe Frazer said the Tigers had a good first period against Saskatoon but the Blades kick started momentum with an early second period goal. He liked their bounce-back effort against the Raiders a night later.
“It was a great start, we took a 2-0 lead on big goals by (Tomas) Mrsic and Dallon (Melin),” Frazer said. “We were resilient, they scored to make it 2-1 and we were pretty good defensively. We didn’t give up much five-on-five and we a big goal from Smitty (Shane Smith) ready to make it 3-1, and obviously Becks (Beckett Langkow) was good in net. It was a great team win and a great bounce back.”
Langkow started both contests in Saskatchewan, getting pulled in the Saskatoon start after allowing seven goals before holding the Raiders to two goals on 27 shots the next night. He says their win against Prince Albert was huge and he was happy to get the chance to battle the night after being pulled.
“Throughout my whole career I’ve been able to bounce back after some tough games; it was huge,” Langkow said. “I was happy to be able to put together a pretty good performance just for the guys out there. They battled for me, so I was happy to get that win.”
Entering play tonight the Tigers sit in eighth place of the Eastern conference, the final playoff spot, with a record of 12-16-4-1. Frazer says they are excited to try to finish off the first half on a high note, with a big part of that being starting games and periods on time.
“We have to be conscious of making sure we’re starting each period on time because I think our starts have been really good lately,” Frazer said. “It’s just making sure we refocus in between intermissions and make sure we come out the same way we’re starting games.”
Defenceman Pasha Bocharov says as much as they’re excited for the Holidays, they have to focus on the games ahead and work for the results they want.
“We just need to focus on the things that we can work on and just focus on ourselves and really try to bring it home,” Bocharov said. “Not focus too much on what’s ahead but just staying in the present and making sure that we all do what’s necessary in order to find those four points.”
Saturday’s matchup with Kelowna will be the first time the Tigers have faced the Rockets since Nov. 8, 2019, an 8-5 win for Medicine Hat in Kelowna. Tigers defender Dru Krebs and Rockets defenceman Elias Carmichael are the only players left on both teams from that game.
The contest almost had a special meaning for Bocharov, as he could have had a chance to face former Blades teammate Colton Dach, who was traded to Kelowna ahead of the 2021-22 season. Bocharov was moved from the Blades to Medicine Hat, alongside Brendan Lee, on Dec. 28 2021. The two would have faced one another for the first time if not for Dach being at Team Canada’s World Junior camp.
“I’m happy for him to make World Juniors but I’m going to be missing playing against him, I thought that’d be cool,” Bocharov said. “But it’s awesome just being able to be in the U.S., too, and play all these Western Conference teams, it’s really fun and it’s a challenge. It’s something we really get up for.”
