NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers' forward Tomas Mrsic celebrates his second period goal in a 4-3 overtime loss at Co-op Place against the Saskatoon Blades on Sept. 30.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Tourism sites say October is a quiet shoulder season for travellers looking to explore British Columbia, and suggests a road trip along the coast to admire the views and spot wildlife, or inland to wine country during harvest season.
For the Medicine Hat Tigers, they’re entering Canada’s westernmost province with one goal: five wins.
The Tigers embarked on their five-game B.C. road trip Thursday afternoon, arriving in Kelowna at night ahead of their first game Saturday against the Rockets. The trip marks the first time Medicine Hat has played in B.C. since the 2019-20 season due to COVID-19 restrictions limiting travel for two seasons.
Head coach Willie Desjardins says they’ll need to do a lot of work off the bus to get ready for what he expects will be difficult games.
“Every game is going to be a hard game,” Desjardins said. “You don’t want to get in a bad roll earlier or you have lots of pressure out of it. So you have to find a way to be good early. But there’ll be really tough games and we’re still a young group who’s learning but this will be a really good test for us.”
Dru Krebs is the only Tiger who has played a WHL game in B.C., as he as part of the 2019-20 team. Associate coach Joe Frazer took part in the B.C. road trips both when he played for the Tigers and as a coach. He enjoys seeing the B.C. guys get the experience of playing in front of family and friends but he says they’ve made it clear, this is a business trip.
“It’s an exciting week, it’s always fun going on a long road trip with the team and team bonding that comes from it, it’s been a long time since we’ve been out there,” Frazer said. “There’s a lot of fun buildings to play in, it’s always a good trip but it’s also a business trip. We’re out there for a reason, that’s to get as many points as we can.
“You can feel the excitement in the dressing room this week, guys are excited about the trip. But they know, when we’re at the hockey rink, we have to make sure we’re dialled in.”
There are five Tigers from B.C. who will get to play in front of friends and family in their home province for the first time. Forwards Brayden Boehm, Brett Calhoon, Tomas Mrsic, Cayden Lindstrom and goaltender Evan May all expect to have a large cheering section during the trip.
The trip kicks off against Kelowna before the Tigers are at Victoria on Tuesday to face the Royals. The Nanaimo products, Boehm and May, will have a lot of familiar faces in the stands that night. It’s a contest that Boehm, in his 19-year-old season, has waited a long time for.
“It’s been a different situation for me, we had our COVID year and no travel, so it’ll be a special experience for sure,” Boehm said. “I have a lot of family and a lot of friends coming to watch that, it’ll be nice in that sense. It’s a little sad in the sense I only get the one opportunity to do so but just have to make the most of what you have.”
The Tigers are back to back to start the trip, as they’re in Vancouver on Wednesday to take on the Giants. That building will feature a lot of Mrsic jerseys with it being the closest to his hometown of Surrey. He’s expecting around 30 friends and family in attendance and says it provides even more excitement when he hits the ice.
“It just gets it more exciting have a family there and getting to play a hometown game would be pretty cool,” Mrsic said.
The penultimate game of the road trip is Oct. 20 at Kamloops against the Blazers, where Calhoon’s family will be in attendance after moving there this summer. He’ll be looking for around 35 relatives in the stands. Calhoon has had some luck against Kamloops in his young career, he scored his first WHL goal against the Blazers when they visited Medicine Hat last season. It’s also his first long road trip in the WHL, an experience he’s looked forward to.
“Hopefully we can just go and get the W, that’s the main goal, but anything additionally for myself that comes along is always positive,” Calhoon said. “It’s going to be fun, just making memories with the boys and all that kind of stuff. Of course I’m looking forward to it but we’re going there for a purpose, so that’s the main goal.”
The B.C. trip wraps up Oct. 22 at Prince George against the Cougars. While each rink will have an away-game feel for almost all the Tigers, Lindstrom will get the family embrace the whole trip as he’s expecting friends and family in every rink along the way.
The trip marks the first time Lindstrom has played in B.C. for a non national team since he played at the Delta Hockey Academy as a 15-year-old. He suited up for Canada at the U17 Hockey Challenge but looks forward to getting back on B.C. ice.
“I’m just going into it how I go on to every game, the same mental mindset just working hard,” Lindstrom said. “It’s definitely going to feel a bit different going back there, just playing in a different league at a different level but it’ll be good, it’s going to be fun.”
