NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Beckett Langkow squares up to the puck as an Oil King forward jets in on a breakaway in the first period of the Tigers 5-3 loss to Edmonton on Feb. 12.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
It was as freak of an injury as anyone could imagine.
Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Beckett Langkow was taking shots in practice Feb. 22 from teammates who were crossing the blue line and firing the puck on net from the top of the circles.
The drill was going as planned until the 18-year-old Langkow, after stopping a shot, quickly shook off both his gloves and skated off the ice holding his blocker hand. The practice continued on as normal as it could with only Garin Bjorklund patrolling the net.
Tigers associate coach Joe Frazer said after practice that day he was getting checked out for a cut on his finger.
That cut turned into Langkow missing nearly a full month of hockey activities before returning to the crease last Friday in Red Deer where he faced a career-high 43 shots in the Tigers 3-0 loss to the Rebels.
The Vegreville product said he had a lot of fun getting back into the lineup.
“I thought I played pretty well, I was really happy with the performance,” Langkow said. “I put in a lot of work over the last couple weeks to make sure I was ready when I came back, so really happy with it.”
He described the injury on his index finger as frustrating because of how often he faces those kinds of shots without issue and how long the recovery took.
“That shot happens a 1,000 times, it just kind of got me in an awkward spot,” Langkow said. “I thought at first maybe a week or two, so it was frustrating for it to last for as long as it could. But had to make sure it healed properly so I was ready to come back.”
For almost two weeks after his finger was cut up Langkow could be seen hanging around Co-op Place watching Tigers practice with a bandage on his finger and pointed up to the sky.
Langkow said he had to hold it up for “a good 10 days or so” and wasn’t able to do anything because of the bandage.
Langkow said what kept him out the longest was he couldn’t hold his stick.
“As a goalie, that index finger goes down on your stick so as soon as I could hold a stick, which was about a week ago, was when I could start taking shots,” Langkow said. “For about a week and a half I couldn’t really get blood flow to it so I couldn’t do anything. After about a week and a half I was able to start working out and getting back in shape. I was skating for about three weeks before I came back.”
He said making a save right in front of the net on WHL leading scorer Arshdeep Bains in his return was when he felt fully into the game. He said through the riggers of practice he became more comfortable with the injury before it was tested in the game.
In his second season with the Tigers, Langkow has had some ups and downs registering a record of 3-13-1-1 with a .869 save percentage. The goaltender said getting back to playing action as the season is coming to a close is huge and said he had last weekend circled throughout his rehab.
“I set this weekend as a goal for myself to come back so I was really happy with it and really happy to get back especially because we have a road trip coming up,” Langkow said. “So it’s going to be nice to have one last road trip with the guys for the year.”
