Tigers look to build off win over Broncos

By JAMES TUBB on October 22, 2021.

If it seems like the Medicine Hat Tigers have only played against the Swift Current Broncos to start the season, it’s because they basically have.

Medicine Hat opened their season with five of eleven games, including pre-season, against Swift Current. Their record is 2-3 against the Broncos, with the only regular season victory coming from Tuesday nights’ 5-4 overtime win in Medicine Hat.

Tigers netminder Grain Bjorklund, who has been between the pipes in all of the regular season games against Swift Current, says it was nice to get a little revenge.

“First two games of the year I was in net and they came out on top both games, so it was good for us as a team to beat them on Tuesday,” he said. “It was kind of like a revenge thing and obviously it was good to get the two points and we’re happy about it.”

Forward Corson Hopwo scored his first of the season in Tuesday’s win and said getting the monkey off his back was exciting.

“I think my confidence was deteriorating over the past six games so getting that goal was a big relief,” he said.

Hopwo says the guys on the ice were happy for him in the huddle and said nice things to encourage him. He also said it was reassuring to have his longtime friend and linemate Lukas Svejkovsky encourage him through his slow start on the year.

“We’ve known each other for a while so I think we know how to keep each other accountable and on track,” Hopwo said. “We know how to get to each other’s core and just know how to talk to each other.”

Head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins said it was good to see the Tigers beat a team like Swift Current.

“I thought we had a good start to the game, first seven, eight minutes I thought were good” Desjardins said. “Then we kind of fell off and they controlled a little bit of the second but then we had a good third. It was huge with our special teams, our power play was huge and so was our penalty killing. That was probably the difference in the game.”

The Tigers were a perfect 4-for-4 on the penalty kill and had three power play goals in four attempts in the win against Swift Current. Desjardins said the power play has been a strength of theirs for the past few seasons and they have young guys still trying to find their way early in the season.

Desjardins says tonight’s game against the Prince Albert Raiders will be a tough one.

“They’ve got a couple imports since we’ve seen them last and they’re going to be an even better team. So we have to keep getting better,” Desjardins said. “We’re not quite where we want to be. We have lots of work to do with our young guys. You see improvement in different areas but these are all tough games for us and we have to stay in games and keep close and even in a game, hopefully you can strike in the third period if you stay close. That’s what we have to do.”

Tonight’s 7 p.m. matchup against the Raiders will be the second time Oasiz Wiesblatt has faced his brother Ozzy. The first being the Tigers shootout loss to Prince Albert last Friday. He says it was a fun experience and he was watching his brother whenever he was on the bench. Tonight he’ll looking for a better result as he faces his brother in his own barn.

“We’ve just got to get the win,” he said. “Just continue on our win Tuesday night. Just keep on buzzing and I have to be the better Wiesblatt.”

Editors note: An earlier version of the story spelled Tigers forward Oasiz Weisblatt’s first name as Oasis.