PHOTO COURTESY KEITH HERSHMILLER PHOTOGRAPHY
Medicine Hat Tigers' forward Brayden Boehm knocks a puck through Regina Pats' goaltender Ewan Huet in the third period of the Tigers 4-2 loss Wednesday at Regina.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers have put an emphasis on starting on time heading into the weekend.
The focus comes off a 4-2 loss Wednesday at Regina against the Pats where the Tigers allowed three unanswered goals in the first period before losing for the first time in regulation this season.
Associate coach Joe Frazer says while the Tigers did mount a comeback, they can’t put themselves in the position they did.
“They came out hard and we just weren’t ready to go,” Frazer said. “We did a decent job of responding in the second, the third period was our best period, but it was just too late though. It was one of those games where they were ready right off the bat and we’re down 3-0 after the first, you just can’t spot a team three goals. I did like our push back in the third.”
The Tigers had a rocky start to the game both on and off the ice. Their arrival to Regina’s Brandt Centre was delayed until 6 p.m., an hour before puck drop, due to the team’s bus breaking down near Moose Jaw.
Frazer says the moment is a learning experience but not something they can use to overlook the result.
“There’s no excuses, you have to make sure you get yourself ready, but it’s a good learning lesson,” Frazer said. “There’s going to be adversity throughout the year, we didn’t handle it great obviously with how we played in the first, so we can learn from that. While I did like the push back in the later part of the second and the third, we need do a much better job responding to that adversity throughout the day.”
Cayden Lindstrom scored on a power play for the Tigers early in the third and Brayden Boehm capitalized with the goalie pulled for their second marker.
Boehm says the Tigers are better than their game Wednesday shows and he didn’t feel an impact of their delayed arrival.
“I’m used to, when I was growing up, showing up ready for game time, getting warmed up and going right on,” Boehm said. “We let it get into our heads and we kind of played the victim there, ‘We showed up late, bus broke down,’ and we just can’t use that stuff. We have to be able to battle through situations.”
The Tigers look for the bounceback this weekend starting tonight at Swift Current against the Broncos. They host a newly reinforced team Saturday in the Moose Jaw Warriors, who acquired Minnesota Wild prospect Kalem Parker and forward Brayden Schuurman from the Victoria Royals on Thursday.
Frazer says they’re looking forward to the challenging weekend.
“We know Swift is going to be fast, it’s going to be a fast game, let’s forget about Regina – we move on, we learned from it, had a good talk about it and now it’s just two tough teams and it’s exciting,” Frazer said. “It’s going to be a good challenge from both teams. Moose Jaw just added Parker and Schuurman, so they have a lot of talent. They’re going to be great challenges.”
As they continue to navigate their way through the early season, with other teams getting NHL players back from training camp and making additions through trades, the competition continues to grow. Frazer says the message remains the same because they all have the same goal and have to work toward it every day. It’s a mindset he says Wednesday night’s loss reminded them.
“We have to make sure we continue to get better every day and that includes games,” Frazer said. “That was the message about last night, we can’t waste days. We’re trying to do something special here, you have to make sure we’re getting better every day. So it’s that competition with yourself. Every day I have to get better as an individual and as a team, we have to get better every day. So that’s today in practice and then this weekend, we have to look at it that way.”
