PHOTO COURTESY ED FONGER SWIFT CURRENT BRONCOS
Medicine Hat Tigers defencemen Pasha Bocharov, Bogdans Hodass and goaltender Beckett Langkow watch as a puck soars wide past the net during the Tigers 5-4 shootout win Wednesday night in Swift Current against the Broncos at the InnovationPlex.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers may be riding a high heading into a weekend slate of division games, but they know the importance of the tasks ahead.
The Tigers have won two straight games for the first time since November, beating the Prince George Cougars 5-2 on Tuesday and edging out the Swift Current Broncos 5-4 in a shootout Wednesday.
Head coach Willie Desjardins says they knew they had to find a way to win against the Broncos and was happy with how his team battled.
“They’ve got a really good team, they have lots of offence, lots of speed,” Desjardins said. “They got the one, it was just a good goal off a good play. Then they got a power play goal and that’s something, we have to stay out of the box, we can’t give them a chance on that. But saying that, it was good to come back, you know, after they scored we rebounded, we got our legs going again and then we were good in OT.
Brayden Boehm scored the shootout winner for the Tigers as they picked up their first victory against the Broncos this season. Swift Current sits two points ahead of the Tigers for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Eastern conference.
Wednesday’s shootout attempt was Boehm’s first of his WHL career and came against Broncos netminder Joey Rocha, who also hails from Nanaimo and skates with the Tigers forward in the summer.
Boehm says he told defenceman Bogdans Hodass to try the glove side of Rocha before his attempt in the shootout that resulted in a hit post. So when Boehm had his shot, he tried the same spot with a much better result.
“It was nice for us to beat Swift, we know that if we want to make playoffs we’ve got to beat them,” Boehm said. “We blew the two-goal lead in the third but we stuck with it. When I heard my name I was a little nervous but I shoot on Joey in the summer so I kind of knew what I was going to do there.”
Wednesday’s game was the fourth between Medicine Hat and Swift Current since Dec. 31, and the two teams have four more to go against one another before the year ends, including a home-and-home series to end the regular season.
Facing the same opponent over and over in a short span and having them stand in the way of the playoffs is a challenge the Tigers have come to enjoy.
“It makes it even more interesting for sure, we know every game is a bit more meaningful and we have to come into it with a different mindset of we need these games and if we want to stay here after the postseason, we have to beat these guys,” Boehm said.
“It’s exciting,” Oasiz Wiesblatt said. “It’s probably one of my favourite types of hockey, just kind of going at each other and you how they play and they know how we play, but the team comes out with more fire.”
The Tigers’ next chance to dance with the Broncos comes Sunday at 4 p.m. in a makeup game for the postponed contest on Dec. 28. Before then, the Tigers host the Calgary Hitmen on Saturday for a 7 p.m. matchup. Desjardins says it’s not lost on anyone how important this weekend and these games are.
“We have to be good, we have to be, these games are all tough games for us,” Desjardins said. “Calgary is going to be tough, Swift will be tough. We have to be good to give ourselves a chance.
“We’re still a young team, we’re still a team building and these teams are a little bit ahead of us maybe right now, but it doesn’t mean we can’t catch them.”
Tigers, Pats tickets selling fast
Medicine Hat Tigers fans wanting to see projected NHL first overall pick Connor Bedard at Co-op Place should act fast.
According to a tweet Thursday night from Tigers broadcaster and communications manager Gino De Paoli, over 4,000 tickets have already been sold for the Feb. 5 contest featuring the Regina Pats superstar in Medicine Hat.
He says Co-op Place has opened up parts of the second deck to accommodate the game.
Tickets can be purchased at tixx.com.
