NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Long time Medicine Hat Tigers broadcaster Bob Ridley stands on the ice before speaking to the crowd of 2,572 at Co-op Place Saturday night. Ridley was honoured by the Tigers for calling 4,000 games with a banner in the rafters of Co-op Place ahead of Medicine Hat's 6-1 loss to the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
Results aside, Saturday night was an important night for the Medicine Hat Tigers organization and one of its most cherished members.
Saturday night the Tigers honoured longtime broadcaster Bob Ridley with a pre-game ceremony and banner raising after he called his 4,000th WHL game on Mar. 21, 2021 without fans in the stands. Ridley has not been on the call this season after undergoing treatment in Lethbridge before Christmas.
He said in the pre-game ceremony in front of the 2,572 Tigers faithful in attendance that he would be behind the mic for the Tigers final game of the season, a home contest against the Edmonton Oil Kings on April 15. After the ceremony, the Tigers managed only one goal as they lost 6-1 to their Highway 3 rival, Lethbridge Hurricanes.
After the game and after having a lot of people congratulate him, Ridley said he went through a lot of emotional times throughout the game.
“So many people coming up to me congratulating me and then before my speech they had the banner going up into the rafters which I had no idea was happening,” Ridley said. “That kind of caught me off stride. But having so many friends around and well wishers…It’s something that doesn’t happen everyday to anybody and I feel very special that I am very fortunate to have that honour bestowed upon me.”
Ridley is only the third person to be immortalized with a banner raised at Co-Op Place, joining Tigers legends Lanny McDonald and Tom Lysiak.
Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins said he thought it was awesome for the organization to recognize Ridley as they did.
“When you look at what Bob’s done, what a legacy, what a man,” Desjardins said. “It was great to see him get honoured, it’s different with him not around but it’s good that he’s around now a little more and hopefully we’ll see more of him come the future.”
See Tuesday’s paper for a detailed story on the ceremony.
The Tigers entered Saturday’s contest on the heels of a 6-3 loss in Lethbridge Friday night.
Lethbridge opened the scoring 6:32 into the contest on Tyson Laventure’s 11tth goal of the season. Joe Arntsen and Logan McCutcheon had the assists on the game’s opening goal.
Both teams has their chances in the first period wth the Hurricanes outshooting the Tigers 12-10 in the first 20 minutes of action.
Desjardins said he thought his team played hard in the loss.
“..It’s just been one of those years, I thought our goaltending was good, I thought they played hard and we saw some good things from young guys,” Desjardins said.
The second period started with a bang when Noah Danielson and former Tigers forward Corson Hopwo dropped the gloves at centre ice. Saturday night was the 20-year-old Hopwo’s final game at Co-op Place after donning the orange and black for 170 games.
Hopwo laughed when asked about the fight and said the two still love each other, “We’re best friends,” he said. Danielson described Hopwo as one of his best friends in junior hockey.
Lethbridge took over the second period offensively scoring two unanswered goals to take a 3-0 lead. Chase Pauls took a pass in the slot from Alex Thacker and wired a puck past net minder Garin Bjorklund while on a Hurricanes man advantage.
The Hurricanes capitalized on another man advantage 5:12 later when Jett Jones scored his 18th of the year. Medicine Hat misfired on both of their second period power plays, failing to capitalize on the man advantage. Despite the two goal difference in the frame, the shots were close with the Hurricanes leading 10-9 in the period and 22-19 after 40 minutes.
The first half of the third period went by in a hurry as both teams traded chances before Lethbridge continued their take over in the latter half.
Yegor Klavdiev knocked in a loose puck on the Hurricanes third power play of the game to put them ahead 3-0. Only 2:38 later, Justin Hall slipped behind the Tigers defenders and found the back of the net for his 14th goal in seven games this season against the Tabbies.
Logan Warmold drew final blood with 1:39 left in the game when he knocked in a loose puck in-front of a scrambling Bjorklund to give Lethbridge their final tally of six goals on the night.
The Tigers were on the brink of being shutout before Ashton Ferster tipped in a pass from former Hurricane Logan Barlage to get Medicine Hat on the board. Brayden Boehm had the second assist on the Tigers lone goal.
Lethbridge goaltender Bryan Thomson stopped 28 shots as the Hurricanes held on for the 6-1 win as they continue their push towards the playoffs, sitting in seventh place in the Eastern conference after the win.
Across the ice from Thomson, Bjorklund turned aside 31 of the shots he faced in the loss.
The Tigers record falls to 11-48-3-1 after Saturday’s loss to the Hurricanes. Medicine Hat dropped all eight contests against Lethbridge this season.
Desjardins said his team cares and showed that in their third period effort. He said losing is hard but it helps the Tigers grow especially when it hurts.
“If it doesn’t really hurt us when we lose, then we’re never going to get better,” Desjardins said. “It would be nice if you could get away without it hurting every game but it has to. So every night we lose it hurts and it’s brutal but that’s the only way we will ever get better in the end.”
Desjardins reiterated that the Tigers chose to take their lumps all at once to avoid an extended period of losing like the five year span without playoffs in Medicine Hat from 1997-’98 to ’01-’02 and guaranteed, it would not happen again.
“That was a prolonged period of time, We are not going to do that again, it’s not happening again.”
He also said, this is not something he wants Tigers fans to have to go through and credited the fans that were still there for the late goal.
“For the fans to still be there and still be excited, it does say a lot about our fans,” Desjardins said. “We will give them some good times down the road and I certainly appreciate their patience with us.
The Tigers are back in action Tuesday when they host the Saskatoon Blades for billet family appreciation night. That game gets underway at Co-op Place at 7 p.m.
