NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Gavin McKenna skates to the bench to celebrate his first period goal in an 8-2 win over the Edmonton Oil Kings on March 22 at Co-op Place.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Gavin McKenna hasn’t even started his rookie season in the Western Hockey League and he’s getting a chance to experience playoff hockey.
Medicine Hat’s top prospect played in the last four games of the regular season and is set to make his WHL playoff debut Friday in Winnipeg when the Tigers take on the Ice to open their first-round series.
McKenna enters the playoffs with four goals and 18 points in 16 regular season games, including his most recent stretch of four goals and 12 points in just six games. The 15-year-old says he is performing better than he expected and gives the credit to Tyler MacKenzie and Brendan Lee, his linemates.
“Mac and Lee, they’ve set me up a few times and we’ve all just set each other up,” McKenna said. “We all work for each other and we’re just clicking, so it’s been good.”
The Whitehorse product has played playoff games this season in the CSSHL with the South Alberta Hockey Academy and excelled in elimination games in both the Circle K Classic and the Canada Winter Games. He was named tournament MVP in SAHA’s Circle K Classic championship and broke the scoring record at the Winter Games. But while he succeeded under those pressures, McKenna knows it’ll be different come Game 1 against Winnipeg.
“It’s going to be an unreal experience for sure,” McKenna said. “Going into the future it’ll be a good taste of what playoff hockey is like. I’ve had a bit of experience in playoffs but nothing will compare to this.
“This will be an unreal experience and I can’t wait for it.”
With all the accolades McKenna has racked up this season across the U18 level with SAHA and the early impact he’s had in a Tigers uniform, there are a lot of eyes already starting to focus on the young talent.
Head coach Willie Desjardins isn’t the type to be convinced quickly about a player’s skill, nor does he give up on a player who is struggling, he evaluates them slowly and has been impressed with the 2022 first overall pick’s ability to jump right into game speed.
“I didn’t think he could do as well as he’s done coming in, I just didn’t,” Desjardins said. “It doesn’t matter how good I knew he was, like, I know he’s good, I know that, but I still didn’t think he could do that. It’d be one thing if he’d been practising with us for three weeks so he’s used to the tempo, used to his linemates, used to all those things.
“It wasn’t that I didn’t think he could do it but to just step right in, that’s a challenge. He’s been good and he’s helped us. He’s really helped us, so that’s a big thing to say for a guy that is 15.”
With at least three more seasons in the WHL ahead of him, McKenna has many games left in his junior hockey career, unlike his 20-year-old teammates who are in their last dance in the playoffs, something not lost on him.
“It’s just doing it for everybody,” McKenna said. “It’s their last couple of games here so we’re all doing it for each other, they’re going to do it for us, they all grind every game so it’s good to see for them.”
Desjardins says going up against Winnipeg will provide McKenna a new challenge, and while he may see some things in the series he wants him to learn from, he knows the forward will already have picked up other things along the way.
“It might be the way this guy sets up, it might be how good their power play did, who knows what he’s going to take out of it but that’s why he’s good” Desjardins said. “It’s that he takes things out and the one good thing he’s seen so far is how much fun it is to win. Our group likes winning, so that’s a good thing for him to see.
“In this series he will see that this team is going to be on you fast and you have to move. That’ll be the thing for him that he’s probably gotten away with maybe at other ages, not having to be always moving. But these guys are quick and that’ll be something that he’ll learn from this series.”
Coming into the season McKenna says getting a shot in the playoffs is something he hoped for and is happy he gets the chance now. The Tigers head into the match-up with Winnipeg as heavy underdogs, not only being an eight seed taking on the league champions but because of the eight NHL drafted players and projected top-10 pick Zach Benson. Even with all their firepower and star talent, Medicine Hat’s young star is looking for an upset.
“Playing Winnipeg, if any team can beat them, it’s us,” McKenna said. “We’ve done it before, we have really good speed on us and we work hard, it’ll be a good series.”
