NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers captain Oasiz Wiesblatt, missing his helmet from a skirmish, starts the fist-bump train to celebrate his hat-trick goal in a 4-0 win Friday over the Swift Current Broncos at Co-op Place to take Game 1 of the first-round series.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Medicine Hat Tigers faithful showed up and showed out in the first weekend of the WHL Playoffs.
A total of 11,405 fans were in attendance at Games 1 and 2 at Co-op Place on Friday and Saturday, the third most among the eight venues hosting series openers. They were the leader in the Eastern conference with only the Everett Silvertips (11,717) and Prince George Cougars (11,626) ahead of them. The next-closest East team was the Calgary Hitmen, who saw 8,200 fans in attendance for Games 1 and 2 against the Saskatoon Blades.
It was a showcase of appreciation from the fans that did not go unnoticed from those on the ice.
“They were really unbelievable,” captain Oasiz Wiesblatt said. “The first game was pretty surreal, I had a few buddies come down and they said this place is the best hockey rink they’ve ever seen. It was unbelievable. The second game was good, too.
“It would be neat if we had the towels going for each game, but that’s OK because the fans were unbelievable. It’s really fun to be part of part of all that.”
The excitement for the series played out on the ice with the Tigers leading Swift Current 2-0, but there is still excitement inside Co-op Place at how many fans took part in the weekend slate.
“I haven’t seen it that full in my eight-plus years here, to see nearly every seat we have in this venue at capacity is something that we’ve always hoped would happen, but have never really seen it,” Derek Schesnuk, Co-op Place event manager said. “I never really thought that it would but to finally see it come to fruition was very satisfying and really made us proud to hold this venue and in such the high standard that we do, and then service the people well when they do come.”
Schesnuk says they’ve addressed the elephant in the room leading up to the series, working with Tixx.ca and ShoWare to fix issues seen in the days ahead of the games. He says there are solutions in place to smooth things out ahead of the next Tigers home game or major event at Co-op Place.
“Knock on wood that technology keeps up with the demand, and we’ve put a couple of systems in place where we should be able to have that system handle that extra traffic and heavy need for event tickets,” Schesnuk said. “I hope we will see that demand again and that those momentary lapses don’t stray people away from trusting our services.”
Saturday’s Game 2, a 6-3 win, saw overflow tickets opened up granting fans admission to the game with no assigned seat. A similar ticket was opened up for the Tigers’ regular season home finale, another sold-out contest with 6,246 in attendance. Numbers, echoed in the playoffs, that make Schesnuk and his staff proud. He also likes the energy those fans have brought.
“The people that do come in with overflow tickets have been really happy to be part of the atmosphere and of the event itself,” Schesnuk said. “They’re very respectful of people who have seats in the concourse, they’re happy to be shoulder to shoulder with fans as they don’t necessarily have assigned area, but they’re just happy to be in the venue.”
They don’t know when the next Tigers home game will be, but with a loss in Swift Current on Tuesday or Wednesday, it would be Game 5 on Friday.
Schesnuk says if the next home game is in the series with Swift Current, tickets will go on sale at noon the day following a Tigers loss. If they don’t play at home until the second round, those tickets will be on wait until that series is decided.
Whenever the next home games are, Schesnuk reminds fans to look into the premium seating options at Co-op Place with the Red Club seats at $35 with in-seat service to the wider, leather seats. There’s also openings for community suites, temporary suites or the ice-level experience. Anyone interested in premium booking can call 403-525-8835, or e-mail coopplace@medicinehat.ca.
