The Medicine Hat Cubs salute their fans for the last time of the season after losing Game 6 against the Okotoks Bisons 4-1 Saturday night. -- NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
How sweet it could have been.
The Medicine Hat Cubs were two periods away from forcing Game 7 in their HJHL South final series against the Okotoks Bisons.
A three-goal second period put the Cubs in a deficit they could not come back from as they dropped Game 6, 4-1 to Okotoks, who took the HJHL South final 4-2. Head coach and GM Randy Wong said the game is won and lost in inches and the Cubs simply ran out of gas.
“You look at the first period and we had a couple scoring chances. You score and you build your own adrenaline, keep it going and maybe the outcome is different,” Wong said. “You don’t score, they come back and get a couple and now you think you’re a little tired… We just ran out of gas, but had we scored a couple goals early it’s maybe different.”
Colby Friedrich had the lone Cubs goal and Dawsen Savage made 26 saves in the Game 6 loss. The Cubs’ focus now shifts from trying to force Game 7 to preparing for next season.
Wong said teams have to lose before they can win and hopes the series leaves a burn in the Cubs over the off-season.
“Once you realize that it doesn’t fell good, then I think you’re in a better mindset to try and win. It’s not a bad thing what we went through today, can’t look at it all negative,” Wong said. “If it burns you enough, you’ll come back in a better frame of mind to make sure you don’t have that same feeling.”
“I’ve gone through it over the years, won some championships and lost some. It takes that to build character and move forward,” Wong said.
The Cubs enter the off-season after their best statistical season in the past 10 years, with a record of 25-8-3 for 53 points and making the South final for the first time since 2013.
Wong said seeing how far his squad went with 17 rookies this year is something the team should be proud of.
“We’ve got 17 rookies on our team and that’s the start of trying to make a championship team, but certainly that was going to be difficult,” Wong said. “Understanding that we took a really good team as far as we could, I’m not going to hang my head. I think our guys are going to be proud of what we accomplished with such a young team and we’re going to see how many come back for next year. We’ll get ready to go and make sure we make the right adjustments and improvements we need to (in order) to be where they are.”
