Tigers look to build off winning weekend

By JAMES TUBB on February 1, 2023.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

The Medicine Hat Tigers are coming off a strong weekend on the road and have their sights set on continuing the trend at home.

After picking up a point in a 3-2 overtime loss Saturday in Moose Jaw against the Warriors, the Tigers beat the Regina Pats 6-4 on Sunday, continuing a trend of picking up points in all games, nabbing 10 of a possible 12 points in their past six contests.

Head coach Willie Desjardins said it was a good trip for the team.

“Moose Jaw has a good team, really talented forwards and that was our fourth game, so they knew what to expect from us,” Desjardins said. “They were going to be ready for us, so it was a good game for us. I thought the guys played well. Even the third period, I thought we played well, they scored and won in overtime but I thought overall, it was a good game for us.”

He said the win in Regina was part of their third period efforts getting better and the group not backing down facing a two-goal deficit.

“We work hard, guys are working hard off ice today to make sure they can do good in the third periods,” Desjardins said. “Regina’s a good team, so for us to find a way to come back was big for us. And it’s amazing, just a couple face-off plays, we score and got us some momentum and the boys took it from there.”

The Tigers come out of the weekend tied for the final playoff spot in the Eastern conference with the Pats, who were in action in Red Deer on Tuesday. The Pats will be in Medicine Hat on Sunday for a 4 p.m. match-up.

Desjardins says the focus has been around getting better each week but also developing the right culture in the room. He says practices the last week were strong and can see the team getting better each day.

“It’s us getting better and getting back to being a championship team and it doesn’t happen overnight,” Desjardins said. “You have to give a lot of credit towards older players. Dru Krebs every day does the same thing, win or lose, he never changes, he’s a great role model for us. (Owen) MacNeil and (Dallon) Melin have been really good, so there’s lots of really good things going on and we are developing that culture again and it’s exciting to get back to that.”

Melin says he’s seen the resilience from the young Tigers group and is encouraged at how they are handling the playoff race and how they handled Connor Bedard in Sunday’s win.

“This is why you play, you want to be in the spotlight at the end of the season and we’re down in the last third of the year here,” Melin said. “It’s all we can ask for is just to be involved in the race and give yourself a chance to play in the playoffs.

“(Bedard) plays like 30 minutes a game, but we have four lines of guys who play around 15-18 minutes. That just means we can all work and when he’s playing that much and we’re on him the whole night, I think that it bodes well for us to wear him down and wear their whole team down.”

Before the Tigers get the Pats on Sunday, they host Lethbridge on Saturday. The Hurricanes sit in fifth place in the Eastern conference, almost comfortably in a playoff spot.

Last season was the first time Desjardins had missed the playoffs as a head coach in the WHL during a non-COVID shortened season. As Medicine Hat continues to push for a spot in the postseason this year, he says this team isn’t yet at the same level as some of those rosters but is pushing and taking steps toward getting to that level.

“We’re still inconsistent and that happens by being young,” Desjardins said. “You look at championship teams, they are 18- and 19-year-old guys and we are still developing our young guys and they’re getting better.

“But at the start of the year I said we’ll see where we’re at after Christmas because I thought we could be better because the young guys, they’re more accountable now. They’ve learned what they can and can’t do, that’s been big for us. We’re still not at the range of those teams that would win all the time, but we certainly have taken a step from last year.”

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