NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll looks to redirect a puck in the first period of a 4-3 win Jan. 20 at Co-op Place over the Calgary Hitmen.
Medicine Hat News
The Medicine Hat Tigers and Calgary Hitmen will meet in a battle of Southern Alberta in the second round of the WHL Playoffs.
The No. 2 seed Tigers, who beat the seventh-seed Regina Pats in five games, will face the No. 4 seed Hitmen who swept the five-seed Brandon Wheat Kings in four games. A matchup made possible by the No. 6 Saskatoon Blades upsetting the No. 3 seed Edmonton Oil Kings with a 3-2, overtime win in Game 7 on Monday in the provincial capital.
In the regular season, the Tigers were 7-1 against the Hitmen with two of Medicine Hat’s wins coming in overtime and one in a shootout. The Hitmen’s lone victory of the regular season was a 4-2 win in Calgary on Oct. 10. The Tigers shootout win, a 7-6 comeback victory at Co-op Place on Nov. 22, saw the Tigers overcome a 6-3 deficit with three unanswered goals before taking the game in the skills competition. Medicine Hat outscored the Hitmen 40-23 in the eight meetings.
Markus Ruck led the Tigers in scoring against the Hitmen, tallying three goals and 14 points in the eight meetings. Both Yaroslav Bryzgalov and Liam Ruck had four goals and nine points in eight games against the Hitmen. Calgary product Andrew Basha leads the Tigers in postseason scoring, the Flames prospect had three goals and nine points in five games against the Pats.
Tigers net minder Carter Casey appeared in six games against Calgary, totalling six wins with a 2.17 goals against average and a .923 save percentage.
Hitmen forward Julien Maze led Calgary in scoring against the Tigers. In eight games against Medicine Hat split between Calgary and the Regina Pats, Maze had three goals and six points. Andrei Molgachev had four goals and five points in eight games against Medicine Hat.
Maze led the Hitmen in scoring in their series against the Hitmen, tallying two goals and seven points. Forward Ethan Moore had five goals and six points, recording all four game winners in the series, becoming the first player in the WHL Modern Era to do so.
Hitmen goaltender Eric Tu appeared in six games against the Tigers, with a 1-3-2 record, running a 4.06 GAA and a .886 SV%. Tu had similar regular season numbers in four meetings against the Wheat Kings, a 2-1-1 record with a 3.23 GAA and a .851 SV%. Come their first-round series, the 2027 NHL Draft eligible net minder recorded all four wins with a 1.63 GAA and a .945 SV%, recording a 49-save shutout in the triple overtime Game 1 win.
The last time the two teams met in the second round of the 2015 WHL Playoffs, a 4-1 series win for the Hitmen. They met in the second round of the 2010 playoffs, a series Calgary took in six games. The Tigers beat the Hitmen in the 2007 Playoffs, winning the Eastern Conference finals series in five games.
Series scheduleGame 1: Friday, 7 p.m., at Co-op Place
Game 2: Saturday, 7 p.m., at Co-op Place
Game 3: Monday, April 13, 7 p.m., Saddledome
Game 4: Wednesday, April 15, 7 p.m., Saddledome
x-Game 5: Friday, April 17, 6 p.m., Co-op Place
x-Game 6: Sunday, April 19, 4 p.m., Saddledome
x-Game 7: Tuesday, April 21, 7 p.m., Co-op Place
(x-if needed)
