PHOTO COURTESY EVAN MORUD/EVERETT SILVERTIPS
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Gavin McKenna is greeted by teammates Ryder Ritchie, Niilopekka Muhonen and Veeti Väisänen after scoring his second of three goals in a 7-3 win Wednesday over the Everett Silvertips.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Less than 24 hours after a spotlight win for the Medicine Hat Tigers, their bench boss had already moved on from the high.
The franchise’s winningest head coach Willie Desjardins spoke with the News about the Tigers’ 7-3 win Wednesday over the WHL-leading Everrett Silvertips, reflecting on the win while already breaking down video ahead of their next game. The Tigers are at Portland tonight to face the Winterhawks, looking to add to an 11-game win streak that is slowly bringing a 17-gamer in the championship 2006-07 season into discussion.
Desjardins was blunt, the Tigers special teams excelled in the win over Everett, as did 17-year-old star Gavin McKenna, who tallied a pair of shorthand goals and added a third for good measure, finishing with four points. But the focus had already turned back to trying to win a division and more specifically, their next game.
“We still have lots to prove, Portland is a really good team,” Desjardins said. “There’s two things – and Joe (Frazer) has talked about this – success can either make you hungry, where you have some and you like it so much that you get hungry, or success can make you complacent, where you’re satisfied with what you’ve done.
“That’s our challenge throughout, just seeing how we’re going to react.”
The Tigers fell behind Everett 9:12 into the contest before scoring three unanswered for a 3-1 lead after 40 minutes. Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll scored in the first period on a delayed penalty, his first goal since returning from injury, Marcus Pacheco also scored.
McKenna picked up the lone goal of the second, scoring on a shorthanded, two-man breakaway with Oasiz Wiesblatt, his first shorthanded goal of the game and of his WHL career.
After Everett responded early in the third to make it 3-2, Harrison Meneghin made a pair of highlight-reel saves to preserve the lead and open the gates for four-straight Tiger goals.
Bryce Pickford scored on a power play for his WHL defencemen-leading 20th of the season, Jonas Woo scored his ninth and McKenna scored on a shorthand breakaway before sending a few hats flying with his 25th of the season. Medicine Hat finished 1-2 on the power play and held Everett scoreless on four power plays.
It was a game, featured by the WHL’s Wednesday Night in the Dub as the contest of the night, available for free on YouTube with 2,000-plus fans watching.
For McKenna, who has shown no squint when it comes to bright lights, it was another time to shine.
“That’s the kind of the game we’ve all been kind of waiting to play, we all knew it was a big one, it was going to be a playoff type game, and for us to win that game it proves where we’re at in this league,” McKenna said.
His four-point night puts him once against atop the WHL scoring race with 25 goals and 83 points. McKenna has recently started penalty killing and has enjoyed the early returns and responsibility.
“People have always thought of me as offensive player, so I want to implement the 200-foot game into my game,” McKenna said. “I can be a good penalty killer, I have a pretty good stick, so I’m going to use that to my ability. It’s good to have another tool under your belt.”
The Tigers are the lone Central division team to beat the Silvertips this season, with Wednesday’s defeat just their seventh regulation loss. Medicine Hat also tied the Calgary Hitmen for four wins against the six U.S. teams. Those same Hitmen, who have played three fewer games, sit just three points back of the Tigers for the division and Eastern conference.
As the race for home ice remains tight, Desjardins says the push to get better has to continue for his team.
“We have to get better to have success in the playoffs, we have to keep working and improving,” Desjardins said. “We’ve got lots of guys who have stepped up. (Ethan) Neutens has gotten better, Pacheco has gotten better, Veeti (Väisänen) is playing better. There’s lots of lots of guys who maybe don’t get total credit but they’re a huge part of us being successful. We have to keep doing that, we have to keep having those guys play like that.
“We’re one of a group of teams, that’s what we are. We have to get better if we’re going to have success in the playoffs.”
They’ll look to wrap up the U.S. division road trip right tonight against Portland and then Saturday in Kent, Wash. against the Seattle Thunderbirds. Looking to sweep the trip, McKenna says it always comes down to playing their game.
“We know we can beat anyone in the league, so we just have to make sure we’re prepared for these teams,” McKenna said. “They’re not going to be easy games, there’s no easy games down here, so we have to make sure we’re ready and keep playing the way we’re playing. Because we know if we play the way we play, we can beat any team we play.”
