NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Newly acquired Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender reaches for a poke check on Moose Jaw Warriors forward Brayden Yager in the first period of a 6-3 loss Saturday at Co-op Place.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
With the implementation of cellphone alarms, fewer front desk staff are dialling hotel rooms for guests requiring an early-morning nudge.
While the unrelenting buzz of a cellphone won’t help the Medicine Hat Tigers right now, Willie Desjardins hopes last weekend’s losses serve as a much needed wakeup call.
The Tigers’ head coach was a quiet version of himself Saturday night following a 6-3 loss to the Moose Jaw Warriors at Co-op Place. It’s a reflection of both the result and the business done prior to puck drop.
It was their second-straight 6-3 loss, falling on the road to the Red Deer Rebels by the same score the night prior. The two losses are the second half of a four-game slide the Tigers find themselves in just three weeks into the WHL season.
Desjardins hopes his team takes the 1-4 start as a stark reminder that they have more work to do if they want to have success. He recognizes the difference in the roster from the week prior but adds they still have to get the job done.
“We’ve taken a big chunk out of our lineup here, moving two forwards, losing (Mat) Ward, that’s a big hit to us, but that’s something we’ll recover from and we’ll find a way,” Desjardins said. “But we have lots of young guys, I wanted to give them a chance in the first half, see what they’re going to do, trying to get them ready for the second half. So it’s not quite where we want it, but we gotta find a way.”
Saturday’s loss was not the lone difficult part of the 24-hours for the Tigers, as forwards Shane Smith and Brayden Boehm were moved in separate deals, with the former sent to Lethbridge for 20-year-old Hurricanes’ goaltender Harrison Meneghin and the latter sent to the Victoria Royals for a pair of draft picks.
The move followed the 6-3 loss at Red Deer, the second straight game the Tigers had to pull one of Ethan McCallum or Jordan Switzer to replace the other against the Rebels. Desjardins says the move wasn’t made because of the result but because Meneghin was made available by Lethbridge.
“They had four 20s, he’s one of the best in the league,” Desjardins said. “We know going into playoffs, you’re going to need experienced goaltending. Losing Smith was tough, but it cost us Boehm too, so was a big hit on us. We’re going to have to find a way to maybe replace those two and get better.
“Both guys were really great players for us, it’s not like we wanted to move them. We had to do it if we wanted to get that goalie. So that was hard for us, something we had to do.”
Meneghin appeared in Saturday’s game, making 23 saves in his Tigers’ debut.
Smith, traded one-for-one for Meneghin, tallied 48 goals and 85 points in 143 games with the Tigers. He also appeared in nine playoff games with two assists.
In the Royals trade, the Tigers acquired a third-round pick in the 2026 WHL Draft and a conditional fifth-round pick in the 2027 Draft for Boehm, who accumulated 31 goals and 70 points in 154 games in the orange and black.
Forward Hunter St. Martin, who scored twice in Saturday’s loss, says the day was an emotional one seeing Smith and Boehm leave the rink.
“Those guys both were Tigers, through and through, and they worked hard every single day,” St. Martin said. “Things happen in junior, we know that it’s a business. We took morning that happens, we came back and we had some energy in the room and we just didn’t get the result we wanted.”
The subtraction of the 19-year-old Smith and 20-year-old Boehm came at an unlucky time for the Tigers, with 20-year-old Mat Ward scratched Saturday due to injury. Desjardins says he’ll be out a few days, with an evaluation still to come, but he had no firm answer on his status for Wednesday’s game at Co-op Place against Red Deer.
Ward joins defenceman Josh Van Mulligen and goaltender Zach Zahara on the Tigers’ injury list, with Van Mulligen out week to week with an upper body injury and Zahara yet to appear this season due to an upper body injury.
As a group, the Tigers roster of 25 players (13 forwards, eight defencemen and four goaltenders) has only 13 returning full-timers, not including the rehabbing Cayden Lindstrom.
There’s a lot of turnover and responsibilities to be passed onto new shoulders for an underperforming group with high expectations. Desjardins says the group is playing hard and he is looking forward to seeing how they build off the early adversity.
“There’s areas of our game that we can improve, where we have quite a few new people there, so we’ll get better at it,” Desjardins said. “But honestly, it’s going to be great for us. Because the only way we ever get where we want to go is by having to push, and right now we’re having to push. There’s a few things we have to change, but the biggest thing is we just have to get everybody ready to go.”
The Tigers’ workload doesn’t get any easier, after hosting Red Deer on Wednesday they continue the five-game home stand against the Brandon Wheat Kings on Friday and the Vancouver Giants on Saturday.
St. Martin says they have to keep getting better.
“It’s not negotiable,” St. Martin said. “We’re on a four-game slide and we have Red Deer here on Wednesday, that’s going to be tough. They’re a hard team to play against, it’s like a playoff game. So, we have to be good in practice, we have to execute and we have to play as a team. Everyone has to buy in.”
