NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers captain Oasiz Wiesblatt skates towards the bench after scoring in the first period of a 5-4, Game 2 overtime win at Co-op Place on April 13 in the second-round series with the Prince Albert Raiders.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Oasiz Wiesblatt has been the thorn in the side of many WHL teams over his five years in the league. He’s ready for his chance to knock out the team who’s pained him the most.
The Medicine Hat Tigers captain needs no extra motivation as they square off with the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Championship series with Games 1 and 2 at Co-op Place on Friday and Saturday.
The 21-year-old has played a lot of games against the Tigers Highway 3 rivals since jumping into the league in the 2019-20 season.
Over the last five seasons, the Tigers and Hurricanes have rekindled the rivalry 39 times with Lethbridge holding a 22-13-3-1 record in that span. During that time, they had explosive wins over the Tigers capped with a 9-2 victory on February 26, 2022 during Medicine Hat’s infamous 11-win season.
Wiesblatt was in the lineup for that game and of those 39 matchups, he’s played in all but three of those games.
“These guys have kind of gave it to to me really the last five years, they’ve definitely got a few more wins and I want to get back at them,” Wiesblatt said.
He looks at the matchup as one that will be decided by every decision from puck drop Friday to the handshake line when one side of the highway will look towards the WHL Finals and the other at an early sunny Southern Alberta summer.
“Every opportunity counts and just reveal it on Friday as we play these guys in the playoffs for my first time, get that feeling of how close these guys are to us,” Wiesblatt said. “Obviously their fans are going to be here and be loud. Our fans are have been unbelievable and showing up to Prince Albert and being loud for us. So we know they’re going to come down and it’s just going to be a really electric kind of feeling and that’s going to be really exciting.”
The Tigers captain has more than found stride in the playoffs, building off his first 100-point regular season. Entering play Friday he sits eighth in playoff scoring with 10 goals and 19 points in nine games. As they’ve sat back and waited for the Hurricanes to beat the Calgary Hitmen, taking until Game 7 on Wednesday, the anticipation built for the Tigers’ longest-tenured player.
The end goal is in sight but still so far away he says, with finding the balance between excitement at the moment and calmness an everyday focus.
“You’re almost two rounds away from doing what you want to do, so you’re getting closer, but it’s one game at a time and the guys know that but it’s really exciting,” Wiesblatt said. “You have this week to practice, have fun and buzz around, but we’re ready to reveal ourselves on Friday.”
With the rivalry shared between the two clubs, it’s a fair bet the lines persons in the series will be busy after every whistle as both sides try to find an edge.
Almost surprisingly, the Tigers have played through two rounds of the WHL Playoffs without recording a fighting major. The Hurricanes, playing three more games in their route to the East finals, have also kept the gloves on.
As both sides look to gain that edge and advance to the WHL finals, Wiesblatt says they’ll have to maintain maturity to avoid giving Lethbridge power play opportunities. A game approach he says starts with him, maintaining discipline that eluded the Tigers and himself early in the season but as games ramped up, was put in check.
“Throughout the lineup discipline is a huge key, they have a really good power play, they’re first on the penalty kill so it’s gonna be challenging for the power play, but we got to stay focused and be ready to go on our opportunities,” Wiesblatt said. “That’s probably what’s going to matter most, who is going to stay more focused and it’s going to be, who wants it more.”
