Tigers embracing playoff push

By JAMES TUBB on February 11, 2023.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

The Medicine Hat Tigers are right where they want to be, in the playoff hunt. Now they have to work not only on staying there but putting themselves in a better position.

Entering play Friday night in Lethbridge against the Hurricanes, the Tigers sit in eighth place of the Eastern conference.

Since early January the Tigers have been taking their schedule three at a time, in order to not get overwhelmed with scoreboard watch. Associate coach Joe Frazer says that’s one of the keys to this time of year, not looking too far ahead.

“It’s just taking it day by day, not getting too far ahead, not looking at anything else, just controlling what we can control and being our best every day,” Frazer said.

The Tigers’ young lineup does not have a lot of playoff experience, with a combined 23 games between Dallon Melin (12, Red Deer Rebels) and Kurtis Smythe (11, Portland Winterhawks) as the only post season games on the roster.

Frazer says he has been impressed with how their younger players have not only handled the playoff push pressures but thrived at the same time.

“It’s not easy to play in this league as a 16-, 17-year-old and a lot of our young guys have crucial roles, whether it’s five-on-five m, or a lot of them are on the power play and penalty kill,” Frazer said. “Those are important roles, big minutes and they’re doing well.

“Have to give a lot of credit to our leadership group who have done a great job with the young guys. Bringing them in and just creating leaders with those young guys. It’s been really good to see their maturity as they come through the season.

The 20-year-old Smythe, coming from an older lineup in Portland, has also been impressed with how his younger teammates have handled the pressures.

“It’s been awesome to see those guys, looking at them at the start of the year, it’s crazy how much better everyone’s got,” Smythe said. “It’s super exciting because we’re looking to make the playoffs here and it’s just going to give all those young guys even more experience for the years to come.”

Smythe leads a lot by example on the ice by letting his play do the talking, but has also told his teammates why they put in the work all season.

“The main goal is to make the playoffs but you just have to focus on the next game at hand and when we get to that point in the playoffs it’s a battle,” Smythe said. “I’ve told them, there’s nothing better than playing the playoffs. That’s what you do, that’s what hockey is all about, playing in the playoffs and battling for seven games at a time.

The Tigers have a chance this weekend to jump ahead in the standings. A win in their home-and-home series with the Hurricanes would give them at least 52 points, putting them in the mix with the Regina Pats and Swift Current Broncos for seventh place.

As much as fans may scoreboard and standings watch, Rhett Parsons says he avoids looking at it and just worries about putting in the right effort every day.

“Everyone just comes to the rink with the mindset to get better and have fun,” Parsons said. “We just take everything and every day one at a time and that really helps us going forward in the games.”

Besides their three remaining games against the Edmonton Oil Kings the Tigers have 14 contests against teams in a playoff spot or in the race for postseason action.

While he was in Spokane, Tigers captain Owen MacNeil was part of the Chiefs’ playoff run in the 2019-20 season where they finished in third place of their conference when the year was shutdown by COVID-19.

The 19-year-old was the younger player in that lineup that relied on key efforts from veterans like Adam Beckman and Eli Zummack. He says being an older player has given him a different perspective during this push.

“I try to not change the way I see the game, but your leadership skills and your abilities on the ice kind of progress as the years go on,” MacNeil said. “I was pretty driven back then as I am now but it’s just learning little leadership things I’ve learned along the way to pass on to our younger guys.”

He says the team is embracing and building off the adversity faced early in the calendar year where playoffs weren’t in the immediate picture. Coming out of the Christmas break the Tigers were 2-4-1 in their first seven games and had fell out the top-10 in the conference.

Since then they’ve not only climbed their way back into the hunt but have started building a sense of confidence that they’re in for a longer season than last year.

“We were talking about it and we had a little bit of adversity coming back but we’re rolling now and I think we’re starting to click,” MacNeil said. “We can’t get complacent and comfortable, we know we can slide either way pretty quick so we’ll just keep doing what we’ve been doing.

“Our young guys are playing awesome, our older guys are playing awesome and we’re pretty dynamic throughout the whole lineup. It’s been fun and now we’re looking forward to stretch.”

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