NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Kade Stengrim celebrates scoring his first WHL goal in the first period of a 5-2, season-opening win Saturday at Co-op Place over the Regina Pats.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com
The Medicine Hat Tigers title defence began Saturday night in winning fashion.
The Tigers celebrated their 2025 Championship with a ceremony ahead of a 5-2 win at Co-op Place over the Regina Pats.
“That was good, we had a couple real good periods, I thought we played well,” head coach Willie Desjardins said. “I thought we controlled the game. Regina made some adjustments. so they did some good things as a coaching staff.They started flying guys out of the zone, gave us a little bit of trouble and then we took some penalties that got us some problems.”
A total of three banners, the Central division, Eastern conference and WHL championship banners were unveiled Saturday night with more to be hung later. The Tigers’ replayed highlights from the 2025 championship run with the Ed Chynoweth Cup and the Eastern conference trophy at centre ice. For those apart of the title win, it was a moment to reflect on the battle of a playoff run. For the Tigers’ rookies, it was a motivator according to forward Noah Davidson.
“That’s our goal for this year, to do what they did and hopefully win a Memorial Cup,” Davidson said. “Just seeing what they did and what they had to do, it brings a lot of experience in the room.”
See Tuesday’s News for more on the pregame ceremony.
Including Davidson, the Tigers had six rookies make their debuts on Saturday. One of them opened the scoring 4:05 into the game, capitalizing on a power play. Forward Kade Stengrim knocked in a loose puck on the man advantage for his first WHL goal. Kyle Heger and Yaroslav Bryzgalov had the assists, the first WHL points for both.
“It felt good, got the crowd into it early, which I thought was awesome,’ Stengrim said. “It was a great crowd tonight, so I thought that was big for for the squad.”
The Tigers struck again a little over three minutes later with a goal from the newly-minted captain. Bryce Pickford, named the 42nd captain in franchise history earlier in the day, wired a shot from his go-to spot at the right point, beating Regina’s net minder for a 2-0 lead at 7:24. Markus and Liam Ruck had the assists on the goal as the Tigers led 2-0 after 20 minutes. They outshot Regina 17-4 in the first.
The Tigers added a pair in the second for a 4-0 lead through 40 minutes.
Just 3:50 into the second, Jonas Woo had the puck in the corner to the right of the Regina net minder and he skated to the net front, scoring past the outstretched goaltender for a 3-0 lead. Davidson and Dayton Reschny had the assists, the first WHL point for both.
Before the halfway point of the second, the Tigers struck again. Woo fired a shot from the point that Davidson appeared to get a touch on. The goal, originally credited to Woo, belonged to Davidson for his first in the league with assists from Woo and Pickford.
The Tigers led the game in shots after 40, outshooting Regina 33-8. Regina showed life in the third, scoring a pair of goals to make it a two-goal game.
The Pats scored on a power play in the first five minutes of the frame with Ellis Mieyette chipping a puck up and over Tigers’ starter Jordan Switzer who stopped a 10-bell chance seconds before. Regina scored again a little over halfway through the period, with Zachary Lansard scoring at 14:03 to make it a 4-2 game.
The Pats found themselves on late power play after Carter Cunningham was given a five-minute major for cross checking Pats’ prospect Liam Pue into the boards in the Regina end.
“We can’t let teams in it like that in the third,” Pickford said. “Come playoff time, there’s not going to be four goals, there’s going to be 2-1 games, so we can’t be letting off in the third.”
The Tigers held on and stopped the Pats’ six-on-four chances, icing the win with an empty net goal from Pickford on a lazy curveball of a shot from his own end with 21 seconds left in the game. Switzer had the lone assist.
Medicine Hat defenceman Josh Van Mulligen was hit from behind late in the second period and did not return to the game in the third. Desjardins says the overage defenceman will, “be out for awhile.” Saturday was Van Mulligen’s 200th career WHL game.
The Tigers outshot Regina 41-23, they also won the face-off battle 37-27. Switzer made 21 saves in the win. Across the ice from him, Marek Schlenker stopped 36 shots. Medicine Hat was 1-2 on the power play and held Regina to a goal on five power plays.
The Tigers (1-0) are off until Friday when they head to Swift Current to face the Broncos before hosting the Saskatoon Blades on Saturday.
Editors note: The stats for the Tigers’ third, fourth and fifth goals were updated postgame.
