NEWS FILE PHOTO
Medicine Hat Tigers defenceman Cole Clayton fights with Swift Current Broncos defenceman Matthew Stanley during a Western Hockey League game at the Canalta Centre on Saturday, Jan. 19, 2019.
rmccracken@medicinehatnews.com@MHNMcCracken
After a 13-year hibernation, the divisional rivalry between the Swift Current Broncos and Medicine Hat Tigers is set to awaken from its slumber.
With the Kootenay Ice relocating to Winnipeg, the Broncos find themselves back in the Central Division with eight matchups against Medicine Hat on their schedule, including a home-and-home set this weekend kicking off Friday in Swift Current at 7 p.m.
The rivalry’s resurgence comes at a fitting time for Medicine Hat — with head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins returning to his role with the Tigers after nearly a decade away from the club. Desjardins knows the interprovincial rivalry well, as it became a focal point early in his career behind the Tabby bench.
“I guess the biggest one was my first year (2003), when we met them in the playoffs. We had a good run against them,” said Desjardins, who went on to win Western Hockey League championships with the Tigers in 2004 and 2007. “During that year they beat us, I think, the first seven times we played them. Benny Thomson got a big goal in overtime for us to kind of snap that streak and then we played them in the playoffs right after that and we won (in four games).”
The Broncos made the jump from the Central to the East Division in 1996-97 when the Edmonton Ice joined the league. They then switched back to the Central for the 2001-02 season before returning to the East in 2006-07, with both moves stemming from Kootenay’s realignment between conferences.
Broncos head coach Dean Brockman says he’s looking forward to bringing the rivalry with Medicine Hat back to life throughout the regular season, though he expects the Central Division to provide a steep challenge for his group.
“I think it’s going to be fun to be part of that again and I’m looking forward to it,” said Brockman. “When you look at the division as a whole every team is pretty well set. I think that doesn’t bode well for us. There are two teams — or maybe even all five of those teams who could win the league this year… For us it’s going to be a challenge every night, and that’s good because we want our guys to be challenged.”
While it doesn’t change much in terms of the calibre of competition, the Ice’s relocation to Winnipeg does provide the Tigers with an undeniable advantage by trading in a handful of five-hour drives to Canmore for two-hour trips to Swift Current.
“Obviously it helps us out on the bus rides,” said Lockner, adding he expects Swift Current to bring a stronger squad to the ice after struggling to an 11-51-4-2 record last season. “They’re going to have a better team this year so we can’t take them lightly. I think the rivalry will be back since it’s such a close game and stuff like that.”
The Broncos will face a much larger scheduling shake-up due to the realignment — trading in five divisional rivalries for new ones and tacking on a few hundred extra kilometres over the course of the season.
“The travel will be a little bit different for us but I think we’ll adjust well,” said Broncos centre Owen Blocker. “Moving forward I think we’re going to be better. We’ll have some good competition this year.”
Blocker is no stranger to a rivalry with the Tigers. The 19-year-old spent half of the 2017-18 season on the other side of the Highway 3 rivalry with the Lethbridge Hurricanes before getting traded back to Swift at the start of last season.
“They’re a hard team. There’s not many like them in this league,” Blocker said of the Tigers. “They’re super fast and they can move the puck really well and they’re very shifty. It’s hard, you’ve got to contain them as much as you can and when you see your chances you’ve got to take them.”
Tigers centre Elijah Brown says he’s looking forward to firing up the old rivalry on Friday night, as the atmosphere inside Swift Current’s Innovation Credit Union iPlex rarely disappoints.
“I like playing in that little rink,” said Brown. “They usually get some pretty good crowds in there and it gets pretty loud.”
Desjardins added he believes the rivalry will thrive once again not just due to the level of competition between the Tigers and Broncos, but because of how the cities of Swift Current and Medicine Hat rally behind their teams.
“That’s a really competitive town,” Desjardins said of Swift Current. “A couple years ago they won it all. They’re a great franchise and it’s good to have them in.”
The Tigers (1-1-0-0) and Broncos (1-0-0-0) close out their home-and-home set Saturday in Medicine Hat at 7:30 p.m. The Tabbies then make the trip to Calgary to finish their weekend with a Sunday afternoon matchup against the Hitmen at 4 p.m.
