NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Tigers defenseman Daniel Baker straddles the blue line with the puck in Medicine Hat's 4-2 loss against the Saskatoon Blades on Oct. 30
jtubb@medicinehatnews.comReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers are on a seven-game losing streak, but the team is remaining positive.
Medicine Hat lost the second game of a home-and-home series with the Calgary Hitmen Sunday, 4-3 in overtime. The Tigers had 11 penalties in the game, including five consecutive in the second period that put them on the kill for 10 minutes.
Lukas Svejkovsky, who scored in the loss, said the PK was really good, but they couldn’t get a flow because of all the penalties. Svejkovsky, the Tigers leading scorer, says it’s they’ve been losing close games and feels the Tigers can still hang with the rest of the WHL.
“No one likes losing, it’s tough to lose, especially when you’ve lost seven in a row,” Svejkovsky said. “Feels like forever ago that we won but I think we have to just stay positive, we haven’t lost a game by more than two goals in this span and they’ve mostly been one-goal games or two-goal games with an empty netter, so I think we’re still in there and I think we can compete with any team in this league.”
Defenceman Dan Baker says the team’s positivity is because of head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins.
“(The locker room) is a little bit sad right now but we stay pretty positive and Willie does a good job of keeping it positive and we just need a good week of practice here,” Baker said.
Baker says Sunday’s loss would have been a great way for the Tigers to get back in the win column, but now they need to keep putting in the work.
“Would have been a huge win for us to snap that streak, but I think we are getting better every game and our structure is getting better and we’re getting better in our D-zone,” Baker said.
“We put a lot of emphasis on putting in the work and knowing that it will pay off and that the success will come.”
Medicine Hat’s last win came on Oct. 22, a 6-2 drubbing of the Prince Albert Raiders.
Svejkovsky says the Tigers need to make some minor changes in their approach to games.
“We definitely do have to change some things, nothing in the strategy just us buying in more and playing harder for each other and I think when that happens we will see better results,” Svejkovsky said.
Behind the bench, Desjardins says he thought the Tigers played really passionately in their Sunday loss and they haven’t been a bad team in their drought.
“It’s funny, all those games are close. It’s not like we’ve been bad, we’ve played hard in all those games,” Desjardins said. “Just the way the league is, we’re not maybe scoring as easy as we’d like, just one break here or there and we could have had lots of points.
“I’ve been with teams where the losing streak has been where you’ve been bad, but we haven’t been bad. But saying that, it’s not good enough to just be close. I think we can build a little bit on the passion but we have to be 60 minutes.”
Desjardins says the Tigers need to find a way to win the close games they’ve been losing over this stretch.
“When you’ve lost a number, you like that it’s close. You don’t want to see you getting blown out all the time or that’s a problem,” Desjardins said. “But saying that, you need to find ways to win those games and I’m not disappointed with the team or the effort, I know that we are right there… So we’re going to need some leaders to step up, we’re going to need some big performances, if we get that we’ll get some wins.”
The Tabbies are back in action Friday in Lethbridge against the Hurricanes before they face the Winnipeg Ice at home on Saturday.
Tigers add Texan
The orange and black added some southern skill to the WHL Monday when they announced the signing of Dallas, Texas product Cru Hanas. The 16-year-old forward has put up 16 goals and 33 points in 22 games with the Dallas Stars Elite of the U16 AAA league.
Desjardins said Tuesday he doesn’t know when the forward will join the Tabbies but said he will likely come to the Hat sometime after Christmas.
Hanas’ brother, Cross, currently plays for the Portland Winterhawks and was a second-round pick of the Detroit Red Wings in 2020.
“Hanas has really taken off in the last year or so, put up lot of points this year,” Desjardins said. “He’s a guy I think we could really look forward to in the future being a big contributor to us.”
Desjardins says the Tigers hadn’t been scouting Hanas for a long time but got a report out of Dallas and signed him soon after. He says he if the Tigers waited another week to put pen to paper, Hanas may not have been available.
