NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Andrew Basha lifts the puck during a breakaway attempt in the second period of the Tigers' 6-3 loss Wednesday night at Co-op Place against the Portland Winterhawks.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
A frustrating mid-week loss and a busy weekend ahead gives the Medicine Hat Tigers challenges and opportunities to rebound.
The Tigers led through 40 minutes Wednesday night before allowing four un-answered third-period goals to fall 6-3 against the Portland Winterhawks.
Head coach Willie Desjardins said Portland’s experience took over and the Tigers have more growing pains, like that loss, to go through.
“My comment in the room was, if we learn from this it could be the best thing that’s ever happened for us, if we don’t learn and it’s just another bad performance,” Desjardins said.
The Tigers got on the board with tip-in goals from Tyler MacKenzie and Hunter St. Martin in the first period and an early second-period marker from Kadon McCann. After that, Portland picked up the pace and walked away with the game while Medicine Hat fell into penalty trouble, including 10-minute misconducts to Cayden Lindstrom and Oasiz Wiesblatt in the third period.
The Tigers had 10 penalties in the contest, Portland had nine as the officials were kept busy. A rotating door on the penalty box won’t give the Tigers a chance to win, Desjardins says.
“We had a chance to put it away on the power play and guys didn’t, that’s why they’re frustrated because they didn’t get what they wanted on the power play,” Desjardins said. “But you can’t, hockey’s a tough game and it’s the other team’s job to limit your chances and to frustrate you., Portland did a good job on it tonight. We just have to grow.”
The loss is only the Tigers’ sixth on the season as their record sits at 9-5-1 and they remain in first place of the Central division. All six of their losses have come in games Medicine Hat could have won and had moments they can see where they lost it. St. Martin says that’s been a talking point within the team as they have high belief in themselves and their potential.
“We talk as a group, we could win every single game this year, it hasn’t happened but we have that belief,” St. Martin said. “No matter what everyone outside of this room says, we know we can be the best team in this league and that we are the best. So we have that belief and we know we’re going to get there, we’re going to keep learning and practising, and we’re going to get to the goals we want to, to win that championship.”
The Tigers come off the loss with three games this weekend, hosting the Lethbridge Hurricanes tonight and the Everett Silvertips on Saturday before hitting the road to face the Edmonton Oil Kings. With six rookies on the roster, the three-in-three weekend, which is a four game in five night stretch including Wednesday’s game, is a new challenge.
“We get to play three hard teams, Lethbridge is obviously our rival, they’re playing great, great structure, good defensively,” associate coach Joe Frazer said. “Then we have a really good Everett team coming in and to finish it off, we go up to Rogers and play a tough Edmonton team we just saw last week.
“It’s exciting, that’s why you come to the league to play all these games and to be pushed not just physically, even mentally to stay with this three-in-three. The guys are excited for the test.”
In his sophomore season in the WHL, St. Martin has experienced the busy schedule and says rest and recovery are the keys for weekends like this. He says the focus has to be on getting wins and the two points.
“Just have to make sure you’re eating right, stretching, getting the kinks out of your body and just grind it out,” St. Martin said. “We have to get those points, have to get those wins no matter what, there’s no excuses. So you just go out there and you play your game, have to grind.”
