Tigers gear up for Blazers,look to bounce back from Pats loss

By JAMES TUBB on February 25, 2023.

jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb

The Medicine Hat Tigers look to get back in the win column Saturday and they get to do so against one of the WHL’s best.

The league’s fourth-place Kamloops Blazers are at Co-op Place on Saturday night to wrap up their Central division road trip. They are 4-0 so far entering a contest Friday in Lethbridge against the Hurricanes. The Tigers enter the game coming off a 6-3 loss in Regina against the Pats on Wednesday, giving them a record of 5-2-3 in their last 10, sitting seventh in the Eastern Conference.

Associate coach Joe Frazer evaluated Wednesday’s loss as not the Tigers’ best effort, and even though they had chances to score didn’t get to the net enough and had some defensive miscues they would correct.

The takeaway, he says, was they had teachable moments.

“We’ve been on a roll here and sometimes when you’re on a roll you get away from your game a little bit,” Frazer said. “I thought we did that and it cost us. So just teaching moments in there that we went over yesterday and today in practice to make sure we clean them up for tomorrow.”

He says they won’t change anything ahead of the matchup against the Blazers and are excited for the challenge.

“They’re a great team but we want to play our game, we’re not gonna change anything,” Frazer said. “There’s a certain way we play and it’s not going to change. We want to be fast, forecheck hard and make sure we’re a group of five. We have to win both net fronts and that doesn’t change whether we’re playing Kamloops or (whomever) it doesn’t matter.”

Saturday’s game marks the return of former Tigers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston, who was part of the organization for 16 years. Forward Ashton Ferster also makes his return after being traded at the start of the season.

The Tigers will be without Brayden Boehm who is week-to-week with an upper body injury, and Pasha Bocharov who did not practice Friday but is exercising and listed as day-to-day. Brett Calhoon and Cru Hanas will stay in the lineup from Wednesday’s game.

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