Tigers win big over Hurricanes heading into holidays
By James Tubb on December 16, 2023.
The Medicine Hat Tigers gave their fans a merry send-off for the WHL holiday break. The Tigers rattled off five unanswered goals as part of a 7-2 win Saturday night at Co-op Place over the Lethbridge Hurricanes, their final contest before the holidays. Saturday’s win comes off a 4-3 loss Friday at Calgary to the Hitmen. Head coach Willie Desjardins liked the Tigers resilience in the win. “Both teams wanted it, the first period was really tight, they scored early, but it was tight,” Desjardins said. “It was tight until late in the second and it was kind of the same in Lethbridge. We broke it up in probably the last five minutes of the second there as well. So they’re good team, could have went either way. They play hard, they play smart but it was good for us.” The win marked 450 for Desjardins as a head coach in the Western Hockey League. The 66-year-old says milestones like that remind him more of the coaches he’s worked with and the players who have gotten him to that point. ” I really do appreciate all the guys, there’s so many tough nights in the league where you play tough teams and it’s a hard battle and to get up for every game, it’s hard but all the previous teams have been great,” Desjardins said. More coverage on the milestone in Tuesday’s Medicine Hat News. Lethbridge opened the scoring with the only offence in the first period. Miguel Marques wired a shot up and over Ethan McCallum’s shoulder only 35 seconds into the contest. Marques’ 14th of the season was the only marker in the frame as the Tigers outshot Lethbridge 13-9 but couldn’t get on the board. The Tigers did capitalize early in the second to make it a tie game and bring the crowd of 3,182 to their feet. Tyler MacKenzie fired in his 13th of the season just 39 seconds into the period. Andrew Basha and Josh Van Mulligen had the helpers for the 1-1 game. They continued the offence over five minutes later with a breakaway rush goal from Kadon McCann. The 16-year-old was on a rush with Basha who held onto the puck and sent it to him last minute for his fifth of the season. Matt Paranych had the second helper. Lethbridge answered back less than five minutes later off a face off. Defenceman Joe Arntsen fired a shot right off a draw for his fifth of the year, making it a 2-2 game. The Tigers found pay dirt late in the frame to carry a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes. After sustained pressure in the Lethbridge end, Basha carried a puck out of the corner and pass it to Tomas Mrsic who one-timed it past Brady Smith to put Medicine Hat back ahead. Just 38 seconds later and with 47 seconds left in the period, Gavin McKenna found twine. The 15-year-old fired a shot home for his 11th of the season, Lindstrom and MacKenzie had the assists. The Tigers exploded in the third period, scoring three as part of a run of five unanswered goals for the 7-2 win. Hunter St. Martin threw a seemingly harmless shot on net from the point that found its way to the back of the net 1:02 into the final frame. Lindstrom and Van Mulligen had the assists on St. martin’s eighth of the season. Just 5:26 later, Shane Smith fired a puck on net that was turned aside before he picked up the rebound and scored on a wrap around. Basha and Dru Krebs had the helpers on his 17th of the year. The offence came to a final with a tap-in goal from McCann for his second of the night with a minute left in the game. Vasyl Spilka and Rhett Parsons had the helpers on the contest’s final marker. McCann credited his linemates for the offence, his first multi-goal night. “It’s pretty easy to put in the back of the net when they’re back-door tap ins,” McCann said.”Great play by Spilka and Basha there, super lucky to be able to play with those guys a couple times.” McCallum made 22 saves for his fifth win of the season. The 17-year-old says there’s still more work to be done on his own game but he’s liked his consistency between periods. Across the ice from him, Brady Smith had 31 saves. The Tigers (21-9-2) head into the holiday break in first place of the Central division and second place in the Eastern conference. They’re off until Dec. 27 when they travel to Red Deer to face the Rebels. The next Tigers home game is Dec. 29 against the Swift Current Broncos. “We just want to wish everybody a Merry Christmas, it’s good to be here, we have great fans and we’re lucky to be part of it,” Desjardins said. 25-24
