NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
South Alberta Hockey Academy defenceman Matthew Paranych skates up ice while goaltender Zach Zahara gets up after making a save in SAHA's 6-0 championship win over the Calgary Buffaloes on Sunday at the 44th Circle K Classic.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The next wave of Medicine Hat Tigers learned one of the most important lessons in sports this weekend: how to win when it matters most.
Seven Tigers prospects were a part of South Alberta Hockey Academy winning its second straight Circle K Championship, after beating the Calgary Buffaloes 6-0 on Sunday.
Goaltender Zach Zahara, who was also on the SAHA team that won the first championship in April, played a big role in the repeat efforts. The 17-year-old netminder started five of the six games SAHA played, winning all five with three shutouts, a 0.974 save percentage, and 0.60 goals against average while earning himself the tournament’s playoff MVP honours.
He says he was just having fun playing hockey and sees this success with other prospects as a big step for the WHL club.
“Moving forward all of the Tigers guys and everyone overall is just such a tight knit group, so for us moving forward it’s huge,” Zahara said.
The other six Tigers prospects in the lineup Sunday for SAHA were forwards Gavin McKenna, Brett Calhoon and Kadon McCann, and defencemen Matt Paranych, Nate Corbet and Kolby Gapter.
Tigers head coach and general manager Willie Desjardins was in attendance for the championship win and was happy to see how well Zahara and the other Tabby prospects did in the tournament.
“It’s one thing to perform well and it’s another thing to perform well in a big situation and for Zach, that’s what he needed,” Desjardins said. “He showed it not just in one game, he was excellent in the final game, but three shutouts, five games with three goals against, that’s pretty outstanding, his numbers must be really good.
“Overall for the rest of the guys, they were all good, it was a good showing. Obviously McKenna had a good tournament but McCann and Paranych were really good. I thought Calhoon, Corbet and Gapter were good as well. It was a good group effort from all the guys.”
McKenna was the talk of the 32-team tournament, taking home the MVP honours after putting up six goals and eight assists in six games, including two assists in the final. He was on a line with McCann for a majority of the tournament and credited him and his other lineman, Kade Duell, for his success.
“We’re like a family, whenever we’re down, we’re sticking with it. It’s just an unbelievable group. Everybody does it for the team and nobody’s doing it for themselves, it’s just all about the team all the time,” McKenna said. “I couldn’t have done it without my linemates. They were unbelievable either setting me up or burying the puck.”
McCann says the group makes it easy for him to come to the rink every day and is excited for the future.
“Everybody works hard for each other and we’re all brothers in there. I’ve never had such a close team and we just have to keep on going,” McCann said. “It’s awesome to have this group of guys and hopefully carry on with them. It’s pretty amazing and I’m pretty excited for Tigers country.”
McKenna, McCann and Paranych are all part of the Tigers 2022 draft class, with Corbet in the 2021 class and Zahara and Calhoon from 2020. Gapter was selected by the Tigers in the 2021 U.S. priority draft.
Paranych says Sunday was what they’ve been working toward all season and he can’t wait for them to have future success together.
“We’ve been working hard for this moment for the whole year – we’ve been putting in the work in the gym, staying out on the ice after practice and it’s just been great so far,” Paranych said.
SAHA wasn’t the only roster with Tigers prospects, as Edge Academy had forwards Hayden Harsanyi and Nolan Dupont in the lineup and goaltender Jordan Switzer suited up in one game for NAX. Harsanyi joined Dupont and Edge for their ‘B’ championship win on Sunday after suiting up for the Tigers on Dec. 31 in a 4-3 overtime loss to the Broncos in Swift Current.
This wave of Tigers prospects will have a chance to get some Western Hockey League games under their belt this season before heading into training camp in August looking to crack the lineup as 16-year-olds.
Corbet says all the prospects on SAHA have sat around and talked about what it would be like to win in the future. The next step for the winning group is to do it in an orange and black jersey.
“The way we can develop relationships now, build chemistry, everything just makes the future that much more exciting,” Corbet said. “It’s awesome and I hope we can just keep the ball rolling.”
