NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Oasiz Wiesblatt celebrates scoring the Teddy Bear Toss in Saturday's 2-1 loss to the Saskatoon Blades at Co-op Place on Saturday.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers head into a busy week off after a weekend full of positives.
The Tigers opened the weekend with a 4-3 win in Calgary against the Hitmen on Friday before falling 2-1 in a close battle with the Saskatoon Blades on Saturday in the Teddy Bear toss game.
Saturday’s game turned into a goaltenders’ duel with Saskatoon’s Austin Elliott turning aside 34 of the 35 shots he faced. Beckett Langkow stopped 22 of the 24 shot his way. It took 44:27 for the Tigers to score the Teddy Bear goal, coming off the stick of Oasiz Wiesblatt for his 11th goal of the year.
Head coach Willie Desjardins said there wasn’t a lot to say to his team because nights like that happen. With four games this week, Desjardins said they have to keep working hard every night to get wins.
“There’s no shortcuts for us, every night it’s going to be hard,” Desjardins said. “But the boys have been good, they’ve worked hard and I think our team is getting better. There’s better things and now we’re competing every night. There isn’t a night where teams are ready for us, they know we’re going to play hard. We’ve won some big games in big buildings and it’s good to see.”
Friday’s win in Calgary was just that for the Tigers, their first victory of the season against the division rival at the Scotiabank Saddledome. Associate coach Joe Frazer says it was a win full of resiliency.
“It’s tough building to win in, it was just a great resilient win,” Frazer said. “We had the three-goal lead, they push back to tie it up and then we get that power play going for the third winner and that was a great win.”
Heading into the week, the Tigers are in Edmonton tonight to face the Oil Kings before trucking to Red Deer on Wednesday to battle the Rebels. Tonight starts a stretch of eight games in 10 nights leading up to their final game before the Christmas break.
“It is a huge stretch, all really good opponents,” Frazer said. “We’re playing good hockey right now, we’re excited. We just beat Red Deer in Red Deer, we beat Calgary in Calgary and played a real tough Saskatoon team hard. The guys are feeling confident that we can play with anybody. These are definitely crucial games heading into the break.”
The Tigers sit in ninth place of the Eastern conference with a record of 9-13-4-1 and 41 left on the schedule. They are one point back of Swift Current for fourth in the Central division and for the second wild card spot, with the Broncos holding three games in hand.
Desjardins says he’s been happy with how his young players have stepped into the lineup through this point of the season.
“Our young guys have done a good job this year, they’ve moved us to a spot,” Desjardins said. “I’m happy with what I’m seeing from the young players for sure. The old guys are good too but the young guys have looked good, that’s a good thing.”
The Tigers’ final two games of the week are Friday in Lethbridge against the Hurricanes and Saturday at home against the Moose Jaw Warriors.
