NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Hunter St. Martin clears a puck during a penalty kill in the third period of a 5-2 win Tuesday night at Co-op Place against the Prince George Cougars.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Penalty killing is a gruel role on any hockey team. Facing the other team’s top players while shorthanded and often blocking shots or getting in the way of passes. Success means the game stays the same and a miscue is in the back of the net.
For Medicine Hat Tigers rookies Shane Smith and Hunter St. Martin, it’s a role they embrace every night.
The 18-year-old and 17-year-old duo have become the go-to penalty killers for the Tigers on a nightly basis, tasked with shutting down the rest of the Western Hockey League’s top offensive threats.
Smith says he enjoys the penalty-kill role because he knew he wouldn’t be a power play guy and wanted to help on the other end of the ice.
“The penalty kill is where it starts and just striving to being the best penalty killer is a goal for Hunter and I,” Smith said. “We do a good job of that and I think we just keep building off one another and pushing each other to strive for greatness.”
St. Martin says he takes a lot of pride in his work on the penalty kill.
“It’s a huge part of the game,” St. Martin said. “For Shane and I, being able to get that opportunity, it’s huge for our team. We have a big responsibility and we both take a lot of pride in doing a good job.”
It’s not a position either expected to have when they entered camp and made the team in September, but it’s one they quickly wanted. Associate coach Joe Frazer says it was a surprise seeing how well they both performed with the extra responsibility in their first full WHL season.
“There’s always an adjustment period coming from midget to the Western league,” Frazer said. “Some guys adjust quick, some guys it takes a little bit longer. Both guys have adjusted correctly and they’ve been really good on the penalty kill.
“They’ve earned everything they’ve got and they came in here and have worked hard for it and then played well. It’s been a great surprise and both those guys have taken huge steps this first half. Now we need them to be the same all year.”
St. Martin has one shorthanded goal on the year while Smith has two, including one Wednesday night in the Tigers’ 5-4 shootout win in Swift Current against the Broncos. While both like scoring goals, Smith says he also enjoys every blocked shot and every earned bruise.
“It’s equivalent for the team, taking that opportunity away from them to score a goal, I think is huge,” Smith said. “No matter what the score is or what that may be, I just think they’re equally important.”
It takes more than just standing in the way of a shot or being able to flip the puck down the ice to be successful on the penalty kill. St. Martin says it takes a lot of work and a lot of lessons learned every night and every day in practice to have success.
“It’s obviously just knowing the structure and doing it in practice a lot, and the biggest thing is even chemistry,” St. Martin said. “Shane and I, I just know where he’s going to go, we read off each other, and we play off each other. That’s sort of really what makes it all work.”
The penalty killing role is often filled by a team’s older players who have a lot of games under their belts and have the experience needed to play a shutdown role. Frazer says there wasn’t any reluctance giving the roles to the two younger players because of how they earned it.
“You have to earn it, you always want guys to earn stuff and it starts in practice,” Frazer said. “If they didn’t kill well in practice, you’re not going to get a chance in the game. When you’re a young guy, you have to treat each practice like a game because there you can show the coaches what you have, earn their trust and confidence. Then, each game you get a little bit more, a little bit more and the better you do with that extra stuff you get more. Then before you know it, a month or two and you’re the first penalty killers.
“They totally earned it in practice and we told them early they probably wouldn’t get power play time so they took the penalty kill ball and ran with it.”
