NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Marcus Pacheco is greeted by defencemen Josh Van Mulligen and Tanner Molendyk after scoring in the third period of a 10-4 win Tuesday night at Co-op Place over the Regina Pats.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers are firing at all cylinders to start 2025.
The Tigers picked up a seventh straight win in large fashion Tuesday night, thumping the visiting Regina Pats 10-4 to extend their season-high win streak.
Eight Tigers picked up multi-point nights with five recording three or more points. Hunter St. Martin had four assists, defenceman Josh Van Mulligen and forward Gavin McKenna each had three assists. Forward Liam Ruck had a pair of goals with an assist and Oasiz Wiesblatt had a goal with two assists.
“This time of the year, it’s really important just getting two points every single night, that’s our main focus,” Van Mulligen said. “We have a nice little streak going here, so it was a good effort. We had a little lapse there in the second but we did a good job resetting and came out with the two points.
The win extended point streaks for three Tigers, with McKenna’s up to 20 games and both Ritchie and defenceman Tanner Molendyk’s streaks extended to seven games.
They led 4-0 after 20 minutes and 5-1 early in the second before Regina showed life and responded with three goals in the middle frame to make it a 6-3 after 40 minutes. Medicine Hat put the nail in the coffin with an early goal, adding three unanswered later in the final frame for the blasted win.
The second period lapse was something the Tigers showed in the 7-4 win over the Prince Albert Raiders on Jan. 8. Medicine Hat led 4-1 after 20 minuets and 6-1 halfway through the second before allowing three answered goals to make the game more interesting than it needed to be.
It’s a small lesson in a big win according to McCann, who credited the reset to the Tigers’ leadership group.
“Those games can get away from how you play and we did a little bit in the second but got back to them third,’ McCann said. “They did a great job on keeping us level and making sure that we’re staying positive.
“Just kept it simple, in the second there we got away from our game taking longer shifts and that starts my line and me personally, getting away from taking short, hard shifts. We have four great lines and three d-pairings who can play hockey, so it’s a step for us.”
Jordan Switzer faced only 17 shots, making 13 saves for his 17th win of the season. He’s tied for fourth in WHL wins with Edmonton Oil King Alex Worthington, Saskatoon Blade Evan Gardner and Tri-City American Lukas Matecha.
The Tigers’ seven game win streak is the longest since the 2019-20 season, where the Tigers rattled off six in a row. Looking too far ahead, the last time they reached a 10-win streak was the 2016-17.
Across the seven games, Medicine Hat has outscored teams 42-14 and outshot opponents 279-137. A large part of the Tigers’ success in that streak has been on special teams. The power play is running just below the 50 per cent threshold at 48 per cent and the penalty kill is working even more efficiently at 83 per cent. They’ve only allowed three power play goals against in the win streak, also scoring four shorthanded goals.
Associate coach Joe Frazer enjoys seeing the seven-game streak on the Tigers’ standings page, but he has enjoyed how the wins have come more, seeing a team-first game since December.
“The best part has been the way we’re doing it,” Frazer said. “Everyone’s contributing, we’re getting scoring from all four lines, both goalies have played well. The whole team effort in this stretch has been really good.”
He was blunt when speaking about how they continue their recent success and how the seven-game streak stacks up in a season.
“Our ultimate goal is to win the championship, they don’t hand out the championship in January, so there’s lots of hockey to be played,” Frazer said. “We have to make sure we don’t get too high or too low and continue to keep improving. That’s the biggest thing moving forward.”
