Tigers open season in winning fashion

The Medicine Hat Tigers have early success to build off of.

The Tigers swept their opening weekend slate against the Calgary Hitmen, with a 4-1 win Friday at Calgary before beating the Hitmen 5-3 on Saturday at Co-op Place.

After Saturday’s victory, head coach Willie Desjardins said it was a good weekend of wins but sees areas of improvement moving forward. He looks for more consistency in their offence.

“Sometimes a young team will do that if you start scoring, you cheat a little bit,” Desjardins said. Usually you score by playing good defense, you turn pucks over and you transition it. We quit maybe working quite as hard and gave them chances and we’re relying a little bit too much on our goaltender.”

The two wins marks the first time since 2014 the Tigers have started a full, 68-game season with a 2-0 record. Evan May started both games and picked up the wins with a 35-save and 22-stop performances. Desjardins wasn’t surprised by May’s strong performances and the 19-year-old netminder enjoyed his workload and is looking for more in the starters role.

“That’s why I play hockey, it’s why I work for the summer,” May said. “It’s nice having that hard work pay off, so just keep on pushing through.”

The Tigers received rounded scoring in Saturday’s win, Shane Smith scored in the first two minutes and Andrew Basha knocked in a loose puck on a power play. Gavin Mckenna then scored on a breakaway for an early 3-0 lead in the first period.

Calgary scored late in that frame and potted two quick ones in the second for a 3-3 tie. Basha notched his second of the game, finding the back of the net in the second, for the eventual winner. Cayden Lindstrom scored on an empty Calgary net late for the 5-3 final.

Medicine Hat was perfect on the penalty kill all weekend, stopping all 12 Calgary power plays and scoring two shorthanded goals. Their power play was 2-for-7.

“It’s all the above, the atmosphere, my teammates and then my parents (in the building) makes me feel comfortable, it’s all good,” McKenna said.

The home opener was May’s first in Medicine Hat as we was acquired by the Tigers last October. He was all smiles recollecting the events.

“It was awesome, so many fans showed up and I knew they wouldn’t disappoint, that was really awesome,” May said.

After the opening weekend, Basha leads the team in scoring with two goals and two assists. He was happy to get the offence but was more focused that they picked up the two wins. He says the early success gives them a lot to build off.

“Every team in the league is hard to play against but when you can start 2-0 it’s always huge for the team’s confidence and how the room’s aligned with each other and clicking,” Basha said. “It’s definitely important for us to have gotten these two win and we’re trying to build off them.”

The Tigers have a couple days of practice before they head to Red Deer on Friday to face the Rebels and host the Saskatoon Blades on Saturday. Desjardins says it will be a difficult slate of games.

“It’s going to be tough going in there and then coming back to play Saskatoon at home, it’s going to be a hard one too, those are tough games,” Desjardins said.

The Tigers are getting reinforcements heading into this week.

Forward Oasiz Wiesblatt was released from his amateur tryout contract with the Columbus Blue Jackets, where he spent three days at their training camp.

The 19-year-old forward suited up for the Blue Jackets during their prospects tournament games, picking up two assists in two games, earning an invite to their main camp.