Medicine Hat Tigers captain Oasiz Wiesblatt raises the Ed Chynoweth Cup over his head in front of a crowd of roughly 600 fans gathered at Co-op Place.--NEWS FILE PHOTO
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
It took some time before Willie Desjardins knew what he had with the 2024-25 Medicine Hat Tigers.
The players knew before training camp. The city and its fans seemed to follow suit at the turn of the calendar in January. The franchise’s winningest coach, not one to be up or down too quickly, eventually realized they had something special in front of them.
“We didn’t even have Andrew Basha or Cayden Lindstrom healthy, those two are huge players and if we could have ever got them healthy it would have been incredible,” Desjardins said. “Maybe the city did know, but I think they were really hoping. I think they relayed hoped that we were going to be good and it was great that we turned out to be pretty good.”
The Tigers were historic down the stretch of 2025, running a 45-6-2 second-half record that saw them lose just two playoff games en route to capturing their sixth Ed Chynoweth Cup – tied for most in WHL history – and reaching the Memorial Cup final.
That run to the WHL championship, aided by the support of the entire city, is the Medicine Hat News’ top story of 2025.
It all began with an offseason of change that saw Desjardins swing half a dozen trades before the puck even hit the ice. He’d make even more moves ahead of the Christmas break after injuries kept the team from hitting its stride. The Tigers went into the break with a 19-14-1 record, good enough for first place but short of the growing expectation.
“I do believe there’s part of you that if you’re wired the right way, you find a way to win whatever there is, and we haven’t done that,” Desjardins said in December 2024.
“We’ve had games we could win that we haven’t, so that’s something we have to develop. I do believe winning, you build momentum as you go. I remember former years as we’re coming down the stretch, we started to win and it carried into the playoffs. That’s what has to happen this year as well, we have to keep getting better.”
The turn in the second half started with a blockbuster trade, bringing in defenceman Tanner Molendyk and forward Misha Volotovskii from the Saskatoon Blades in a nine-piece deal.
That transaction was the turning point in the room, according to former captain Oasiz Wiesblatt.
“That’s when things started to really click and the city really got behind us,” Wiesblatt said. “Right when they came, we were probably going on a 13-game streak of getting points. The first game we had Moly was like, ‘Oh my God, this is game changing.’ And I feel like that first game, when he came back it was like, ‘We got the squad.’
“Around the trade deadline is when you want something to happen and Willie and the Maser family made something happen and I thought that was the game breaker. It really gave a lot of guys on the team confidence and they were really excited before and after that.”
That 13-game point streak included the U.S. road trip where they won all but the final game, losing in a shootout to the Seattle Thunderbirds. On that trip they took down the regular season champion Everett Silvertips 7-3, led by a hat trick, two coming shorthanded, from eventual CHL and WHL player of the year Gavin McKenna.
They dominated the road in the second half with a 15-1-2 record away from the friendly confines of Co-op Place.
“That’s just about an impossible record, our road record, it’s crazy,” Desjardins said. “To put up a record like that, there’s not many teams that have ever done that in our league for that stretch of time and I don’t think I even thought of us in that category yet.”
The run continued as the Tigers held onto the conference and division lead, coming down to the final game of the regular season in Calgary where they beat the Hitmen 5-2 for the first conference title since 2007. Harrison Meneghin turned aside 35 saves to secure the conference, however the group learned post game that the overage net minder’s father Derek had suddenly died while at the game.
He returned to the team and was somehow able to win an emotional Game 1 of the playoffs with a 21-save shutout over the Swift Current Broncos. It was just one of 16 wins needed to win the championship, but it was a moment that left few dry eyes and captured even more hearts around the team and city.
“When he got that shutout and then when he lifted Ed first, that was really special,” Wiesblatt said.
The support in the rink for that Game 1 win encapsulated the good and the bad the club had to endure before the championship – an 11-win season, back-to-back first-round exits and an 18-year wait between title shots. It continued throughout the playoffs as the Tigers dispatched the Broncos, Prince Albert Raiders and Lethbridge Hurricanes to reach the finals against the Spokane Chiefs.
Where the support was felt even more, according to the team, was following a 6-2 Game 2 loss as they left for Spokane deadlocked at one win apiece. Tigers fans lined the path out of Medicine Hat toward Spokane, sending the team off with a collective showing of belief.
“Just knowing the city had our backs no matter what,” Medicine Hat product Josh Van Mulligen said. “We were really down after Game 2 and to see the support, everyone came out and kind of sent us off to Spokane, we knew exactly who we were playing for. Even road games, every single road game in the playoffs, we had a lot of fans and when we were winning in those road bars, they were the loudest in there.”
For Van Mulligen, the fan support and the atmosphere reminded him of when he watched the team at the old Arena, sitting in section two. He says he had a lot of friends, old classmates, teachers and family friends get to enjoy the run and cheer them on. As a player he enjoyed every moment, a run he says his younger self would’ve loved.
“I was never old enough to see this team go on a run like that and to be on the team, it was kind of weird and I was almost a little jealous I wasn’t in the crowd when I was younger for a championship team,” Van Mulligen said.
The year featured many more highlights for the Tigers as Desjardins captured his 500th win, McKenna performed multiple show-stopping feats, including a CHL record 54-game point streak. They battled injuries throughout, weathering the storm as only a team of destiny can do.
They were able to accomplish it all, a season that’ll never be forgotten, because of the support from within and even more so, from the city they play for.
“We weren’t doing it for us, but we’re doing it for them every every night,” defenceman Jonas Woo said. “Every day we come here with a lot of energy and we know those fans come to watch us win, and that’s what we try and do. Especially last year going on the bus and seeing the parade and all those fans waiting for us, it just gives a lot of motivation and helps a lot mentally.
“These fans are amazing and we never want to disappoint them.”
For Desjardins, who backstopped his third championship in Medicine Hat, it was an opportunity for the Tigers to give back to those who give them everything. He says the Toronto Blue Jays’ run to the World Series reminded him of the special year in Medicine Hat and what it meant not only to them but to the city as a whole.
“It was really great when the Blue Jays went on their run, I saw the whole country get together, and that’s what the Tigers’ run was,” Desjardins said. “It was a chance for our whole community to get together and cheer for one thing. It didn’t matter if you’re on opposite sides politically, it didn’t matter. It was everybody able to cheer together, and you don’t get that very often. That was pretty special.”
