NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Hunter St. Martin scans his options in the Winnipeg end during the first period of Game 5 a 3-2 loss against the Ice on Wednesday at Co-op Place.
In a season of ups and downs, the Medicine Hat Tigers’ short playoff run served as a final lesson on another growing season.
The first-round sweep at the hands of the Winnipeg Ice, who were a top team in the Western Hockey League and one of the top-ranked Canadian Hockey League teams, provided not only a taste of what the young Tigers can expect of the playoffs but also what a contending team looks like.
Medicine Hat was outscored 20-9 but outshot the Ice 120-102 in the four games. Associate coach Joe Frazer says the Ice were the right team for them to play and learn from.
“That’s who we want to become, they’ve been one of the best teams in the league the last couple of years,” Frazer said. “To be able to show our guys on video their high-end guys, they have a lot of talent, but just the details on the stopping and starting the puck management. They have a ton of talent but they play the game the right way. That was a great opponent for us to play and to learn from.
“Obviously we would have liked to win a game or two and push them a little harder but as a learning experience, that was the opponent we needed to play to go, ‘OK our details have to be better.’
A big part of those details in the series loss was the special teams success Winnipeg thrived off of. The Ice scored seven power play goals in the series, going 31.8 per cent on their man advantage opportunities to the Tigers 28.6, who also allowed a shorthanded goal in Game 4. Two of the game-winning goals for Winnipeg came while on the man advantage.
Penalty killers Hunter St. Martin and Shane Smith both echoed how important it was for the Tigers to face a team like Winnipeg and see what made them successful in the high-pressure moments of the playoffs.
“It’s huge for the group, we’re super young including myself, to get that experience and have a chance to experience what playoff hockey is all about, especially against a team like that.” St. Martin said. “In the future we want to win championships here, so we’re going to have to face teams like that and beat them. So it’s great experience for us and now we know what to expect and can feel more comfortable.”
St. Martin scored a second-period tying goal in Game 4 before Winnipeg found the back of the net in the third for the 3-2 win.
“Looking at the future of this team, just seeing we can be that team next year or in a couple years, I learned a lot from that,” Smith said. “The playoff atmosphere and gameplay ties a little bit more into my gameplay being a more physical player. They’re a top-three team in the country all year so it’s pretty special to play them and get a chance to take them down, it was good outshooting them in some games.
“We’re just learning from them for our future and the team’s future. It was really special to be in the playoffs in my rookie year. Not a lot of guys get to experience that. This team has come so far from the beginning of the year and it’s pretty special as we continue to build that culture, getting that winning mentality for the playoffs and a little taste for the playoffs for the upcoming years.”
The Tigers have experienced two seasons in a row of lessons, coming off the 11-win 2021-22 season filled with growing pains and a year full of taking it on the chin. Entering this season, the younger lineup was able to shock the rest of the league with their turnaround and experience winning, with the 9-1 season opener against the Lethbridge Hurricanes a prime example.
As the rest of the league learned what it took to beat the Tigers, they had another lesson on how to come back in games and hold leads when it counted, like the 4-3 victory over the Swift Current Broncos to punch their playoff ticket on the final day of the regular season.
Goaltender Beckett Langkow says the experiences from each playoff game and the series as a whole are just another addition to the Tigers’ book of lessons.
“We can take lots of different things from different years, that’s how it goes,” Langkow said. “All of the guys who were on the team last year and went through it, going to this year it was different for sure. We all took different roles, every one of us. So we took a lot of things from this year, stepping up into bigger roles, myself included. Last couple of years I didn’t get to play much and then this year playing a lot. So it definitely felt good to contribute. I think a lot of guys feel that way in the room, everyone’s taking a different role, that’s how everyone learned this year.”
