NEWS PHOTO
JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers netminder Garin Bjorklund keeps his eyes on the puck during a Red Deer breakaway in the first period of the Tigers contest against the Rebels Tuesday night at Co-op Place.
The Medicine Hat Tigers did not get the start to March they wanted.
After going winless in the month of February, the Tigers kicked off March with a 11-1 loss to the Red Deer Rebels Tuesday night, their 11th straight defeat.
The Tigers came into Tuesday’s contest on the heels of a 9-2 loss in Lethbridge to the Hurricanes Saturday. Medicine Hat also started the contest shorthanded, playing with 11 forwards and six defencemen. The Tigers had five players scratched due to injury, including captain Daniel Baker who suffered a potentially season-ending upper body injury in Saturday’s loss.
When asked how he evaluates a loss like Tuesday night’s with a young, depleted lineup, Tigers head coach Willie Desjardins said it’s like a circle from when he first joined the Tigers.
“When I first came in, I remember Red Deer came in one night and beat us 8-3 at home and Brandon came in the next night and beat us 9-2 at home and then we found a way to start getting better and battling, things changed,” Desjardins said.
“I guess we are back in that cycle a little bit. We are young, but that doesn’t matter if you’re young. It doesn’t matter how big you are, how young you are, there’s always fight in you. We haven’t found that right now.”
Desjardins said it was hard losing Baker from the line-up and called him a glue line within the roster.
Some of the 1,798 Tigers faithful in attendance were still buying their popcorn when the Rebels first got on the board. Arshdeep Bains scored his 27th of the season 24 seconds into the game to put Red Deer ahead early. The Rebels followed it up 5:40 later when Jace Isley found twine for his 12th goal of the campaign.
Medicine Hat answered back 5:27 later on the man advantage. Rookie forward Andrew Basha took a pass at the side of the net from Oasiz Wiesblatt and outwaited netminder Connor Ungar to find the back of the net. Reid Andresen had the second assist on Basha’s second goal of the season.
The Tigers almost escaped the first period only down one before Liam Keeler fired a shot pass Tigers goaltender Garin Bjorklund to restore Red Deer’s two-goal lead heading into intermission. The Rebels led on both the scoreboard and shot category, registering 11 shots to the Tigers 7.
Desjardins said the Tigers don’t quit games but said they sag and it takes their energy.
“When things don’t go right you have to find a way to battle through…it just takes all our energy out, we’re so disappointed,” Desjardins said. That’s hard on a group but what do you do? You find a way to get better. There’s nobody going to come in and help, what’s in the room is in the room. That’s all we have to find a way to play with. So we have to find a way with that group.”
Just like the first, Red Deer scored first to take momentum early. Frantisek Formanek picked up the puck on the power play and roofed it backhand
The Rebels continued their offensive prowl early, scoring two more goals in a matter of 2:56 to give them a 6-1 lead. Kalen Lind scored to chase Bjorklund after allowing five goals on 17 shots. Bains followed that up with a tight-angle tally on net minder Zach Zahara, who took over the net for the second straight game.
Red Deer kept pouring it on as Talon Brigley scored on a shorthanded breakaway a little over two minutes later. Brigley’s goal was the last of Red Deer’s five-goal second period as they took an 8-1 lead into the third.
The third period went by quickly as both teams traded chances up and down the ice The Rebels added to the lead in the third, with Isley and Fromanek’s second goals of the game and Huter Mayo’s first as they took the game 11-1. Red Deer outshot the Tigers in their win, leading 42-22.
Dejsardins said the Tigers made a choice to not go all in this season and said where the Tigers are now is not a place he wants to be in the future.
“We made a choice when we traded Lukas (Svejkovksy) when Silly (Cole Sillinger) didn’t come back, we made a choice right there and said we aren’t going to win this year, we’re not,” Desjardins said. “Did we think we’d lose lots, no. But we knew we weren’t. We said we have to get better in the future but that’s what we have to do. We have to be willing to take some lumps now to be better in the future. I don’t want to be here and be an average team over the next three years. I have no desire to do that. I want to have a chance to win a championship again, that’s what I want. We are a long ways away from it but we were a long ways away from it when I came in before… We can’t stay this way but we did make the choice.”
Zahara made 19 saves in the relief effort, his second appearance in a Tigers uniform. The 16-year-old netminder turned aside multiple wide open Red Deer chances.
Ungar made 22 saves in the Red Deer net.
Tuesday’s win, Red Deer’s 34th of the season, has the Rebels comfortably sitting second in the Central Division with a 34-15-2-1 record. Medicine Hat’s record sits at 9-37-3-1 after the loss.
When asked about guys accepting losing, Desjardins said he likes the Tigers group and said losing can be easy to accept.
“Losing is easy, it’s so easy just to say we’re not going to win this year so it doesn’t matter, every game matters,” Desjardins said. “Every game, every shift matters. That’s up to coaches where we can’t allow people to do that, we can’t allow it.”
The Tigers are back in action Wednesday when they head to Edmonton to battle with the Eastern conference leading Oil Kings at 7 p.m.
Desjardins said they are going to need the Tigers have to be the best they can be against an Oil Kings team that is all in for this season.
“…I don’t care how we play, that’s going to be a challenge,” Desjardins said. “We’re going to need unbelievable goaltending, we’re going to need greater specialty teams, we’re going to need some things going our way. Just because you go in there and don’t win doesn’t mean guys haven’t given everything they have. They traded away everything for this year, we did the opposite. So you can’t expect to go in there and dominate that team, it’s not going to happen. But we cannot give up, we have to battle and be the best we can be.”
