The Medicine Hat Cubs wrapped up their preseason Sunday with a 5-3 loss at the Kinplex against the Coaldale Copperheads.--NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Cubs wrapped up their exhibition season over the weekend.
The Cubs won 4-2 Saturday night at Coaldale before falling 5-3 Sunday at the Kinplex against the Copperheads to not only split the weekend slate, but also their preseason schedule with a record of 2-2.
Head coach and general manager Randy Wong says Sunday’s preseason loss has to be something they can’t be comfortable with.
“The guys have to get the message that it’s not acceptable to lose any games, preseason, regular season or playoffs, so we’ll address that,” Wong said. “Really when you look at it, we had 41 shots, we had probably 15 or 20 other shots we hit the glass on or were wide, so 60-70 scoring chances and we only get three goals, not good enough. That was kind of the message, and practice has to be sharper. We have to fewer turnovers, more hitting the net and there will be more success if we do all that.”
The Cubs also split their first two preseason games last weekend against the Strathmore Wheatland Kings. But looking back at the last two weekends of games and the practices in between, Wong says he’s been impressed with his team’s drive and effort level.
“I’m really happy with their work ethic; their attitude and their work ethic has always been right from day one,” Wong said. “It’s been a pleasant surprise for me and I think we can build from that. The guys are upbeat and they want to get going. They had a grind through main camp and then we’ve worked hard in practice, so we’re ready to go. We’ll put our full lineup in, we haven’t had that yet, we’ve always kind of interchanged some guys. We have five or six guys who haven’t seen a lot of preseason, so we’ll get them active here shortly and we’ll come up with a better roster come Sunday.”
The Cubs open their 50th season of operation Sept. 24, when they hit the road for a rematch with Coaldale. Sunday’s preseason affair featured multiple game misconducts and had no love lost between the two clubs. Wong says they just have to stick to their game if they want to have success.
“They have to play a certain way to be successful against us and if that’s their way, we know that we’ve got to use our speed,” Wong said. “We just can’t get caught up. For us, Sunday was better than Saturday, we didn’t kind of get too involved in that and we have to continue with that mindset to make sure we don’t slow down and do what they want us to do. If we understand that and play that way, I think we’ll be better off for it.”
