NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Beckett Langkow keeps his eye on the puck with two Winnipeg Ice forwards in the first period of the Tigers 5-2 loss to the Ice on Saturday at Co-op Place.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers had strong starts to their weekend games but could not seal the deal in either.
The Tigers led the Lethbridge Hurricanes 1-0, 1:44 into their Friday night road contest before ultimately falling 5-4 in a comeback effort. On Saturday when the CHL’s top-ranked Winnipeg Ice rolled into Co-op Place, the Tigers jumped ahead early on Oasiz Wiesblatt’s fourth goal of the season only 15 seconds into the game.
But it was Winnipeg who tied it up in the first period twice before scoring three unanswered goals for the 5-2 win. Tyler Mackenzie had the Tigers second goal in the loss, his third tally of the season.
When sizing up the Tigers loss Saturday to Winnipeg, head coach Willie Desjardins said a loss is a loss and it does not matter who it comes against.
“Every game is going to be tough in this league and that’s where we have to learn. We’re still young, we still have guys that are learning and can be better by Christmas time but it’s a pretty good effort,” Desjardins said. “We have guys out there that haven’t played an awful lot. (Shane) Smith, (Hunter) St. Martin haven’t played an awful lot of games and they’re going up against the big boys, that’s a pretty tall task. But they did a good job with it.
“(Josh) Van Mulligen is another guy that hasn’t played an awful lot in the league and I thought he had a strong game too. Our young guys are playing pretty good.”
Wiesblatt said after Saturday’s loss the Tigers need to continue their strong start but push it through the full 60 minutes of the game.
“It’s just committing to what we want to do, get pucks in deep, forecheck and just play with our speed,” Wiesblatt said. “We have great speed, so we need to bring a 110 per cent effort at all times.”
Desjardins said both games were going to be tough contests for the Tigers, and they showed an improvement from last season on both nights.
“You have to be realistic, (Winnipeg) is a pretty good hockey team and going into Lethbridge’s home opener, that’s a really tough building, one of the toughest in the league. Those are tough games and you’re not always going to win those games, you just won’t,” Desjardins said. “But we had a chance in both of them and that’s better than we were last year. We’re moving in the right direction and that’s what we have to keep doing.”
The team’s next action will provide a challenge in its own as the young Tabbies hit the road for their first United States road trip since the 2018-19 season. They’ll look to snap their two-game slide while on the trip, which Desjardins said will come from getting better shift by shift.
“There’s no shortcuts. We have to improve our habits, and with young guys it’s going to take a while sometimes and that is that frustrating,” Desjardins said. “But I’ve (said) before, we want to find a way to win and we need to play those young guys and they have to develop.”
Tigers goaltender Beckett Langkow was in net for both losses over the weekend. He said he and the team could have been better and he’s looking forward to playing WHL games in the U.S. for the first time.
“It’s going to be exciting, there’s a big group of us who grew up without a trip like this just because the last two years we haven’t had games across conferences,” Langkow said. “I’m really excited, it’s going to be a great five games, tough five games.”
The Tigers (1-2) get the road trip started Friday in Everett against the Silvertips.
