NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Cam Parr celebrates his Game 5 overtime winner Saturday at Co-op Place to beat the Regina Pats 5-4 and take the first-round series 4-1.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Regina Pats reminded Willie Desjardins of their 2025 Memorial Cup foes from a year ago.
Unlike their final battle with the London Knights, the Tigers advanced past the Pats with a 4-1 first-round series win after a 5-4, comeback Game 5 win in overtime on Saturday.
“They played a lot like London did last year at the Memorial Cup, a similar style, and it’s a hard style to play, they did a good job with their line,” Desjardins said. “It was tough to get in, we had to dump pucks behind them, so a lot of credit to the Pats.”
Desjardins says their depth was a factor in the series, able to roll out more players as the Pats played with 11/7 lineups, swapping skaters in and out through the five games. The Pats also reminded Desjardins of another team, the 2022-23 Tigers who clinched the playoffs on Game 68 and lost in the first round to the Winnipeg Ice.
“We played really hard in that series, we played hard against Winnipeg and they played hard here, they could have got a better fate,” Desjardins said. “If we don’t get those two right at the end of the second, we don’t get that game. So we were fortunate to score a couple late. But saying that, the boys played hard, like they played really hard and battled, it was great for us.”
The defending WHL Champions were pushed throughout the series, Regina scored first in three of the five games. The Pats led 3-0 and 4-1 in Game 5 before the Tigers stormed back to force overtime, where Cam Parr called series 51 seconds into the extra frame.
“When you’re in overtime, no shot is a bad shot, we talked in the intermission about that and getting pucks to the net, it paid off,” Parr said.
The overtime winner was his first goal of the postseason, but his impact was felt beyond the scoresheet, Desjardins said.
“He’s been so valuable for us,” Desjardins said. “He’s really mature, he understands the game, he plays hard and he’s been really good for us. I can’t say enough good things about him, he’s just a real character player.”
The Tigers’ comeback effort was completed with one of the luckier bounces in recent history. A dump-in on a late third-period power play ricocheted off a stanchion behind the Regina net, kicking out to Liam Ruck in the slot who beat a diving Marek Schlenker and former Tigers Matt Paranych to tie Game 5 with 4:24 left on the clock.
Desjardins, who is now third all time in WHL Playoff coaching wins with 88, says the bounce reminded him of the ones their former home, the Arena, was famous for. He says the Tigers created their breaks in the series, and he also credited the 5,508 in attendance for helping them push for the comeback.
“We were playing hard, we deserve breaks, too. If Liam isn’t up on the play it doesn’t matter, it just goes to the front,” Desjardins said. “So for sure, it was a big break for us.
“But what a great crowd we had, too, it’s so awesome to play in front of the crowd. Like, the Regina players were saying it’s going to be nice to go to the Hat because of the crowd. We’re lucky to have that, it was good.”
Forward Andrew Basha, who scored in Game 5 and leads the Tigers in postseason scoring with three goals and nine points, says they never dipped after trailing 4-1.
“It was really good in the room, on the bench, and it showed a lot of character,” Basha said. “So, really happy with all of our responses.”
It was a change from the Game 2 loss, Desjardins says, where he had seen the Tigers pull apart.
“I was disappointed in the group in Game 2, because when things got bad we didn’t pull together, we didn’t rally together,” Desjardins said. “It was the opposite (Saturday), when things were bad the group was together and playing hard. We wanted it, they believed in it and it was a great job by the leadership. It was a great job as a team, just wanting to win for each other.”
Captain Bryce Pickford says they wrongly took the Pats lightly going into the series. He sees room to grow as they look to continue their title defence.
“The startup in periods, we need to be better, especially the beginning of the first we’ve been pretty bad and we usually take pride in that,” Pickford said. “So I don’t know what’s going on there, but we have to fix it. We just have to take it game by game and get better.”
The Tigers await their second-round opponent, with the Saskatoon Blades and Edmonton Oil Kings series playing a Game 7 Monday. If Edmonton wins, the Tigers will face the Oil Kings. A Saskatoon win means Medicine Hat will face the Calgary Hitmen, who swept the Brandon Wheat Kings in the first round.
