Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Ethan McCallum squares up to a shot from Lethbridge Hurricanes forward Miguel Marques in the first period of a 3-2 win Saturday night at Co-op Place.--NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers continue to showcase resiliency while atop the Central division.
After a 5-3 road loss Friday to Lethbridge, they bounced back to hold on to beat the Hurricanes 3-2 on a chilly Saturday night.
The Tigers have continued their trend of not letting losses build up. Of their 13 defeats, only four have come following another loss, and they haven’t lost more than two in a row through their 41 games entering Tuesday night.
It’s a mindset of bouncing back that forward Hunter St. Martin, who had a goal and an assist in the win, says they commit to.
“It’s part of our resiliency, we don’t accept not being good, we don’t accept losing, we bounce back,” St. Martin said. “We need the points, we’re desperate when we lose. We need the points no matter who we’re playing. You go out there and you get the W.”
Shane Smith scored twice in Saturday’s victory and goaltender Ethan McCallum stopped 17 of 19 shots for the win. McCallum noted how thankful they were for the Tigers’ fans who showed up Saturday night, braving the extreme cold to cheer them on.
“It’s great, honestly, two years ago having no one coming out to now everyone, and everyone’s making that effort, especially in these extreme colds right now,” McCallum said. “It’s just awesome to see that and especially how loud they were tonight, we appreciate that.”
The Tigers are looking to find a little more consistency in their game as they haven’t been able to string together a lot of success since returning from Christmas, outside two games when they outscored opponents 22-5.
They have a 5-4 record in their nine games since the holidays. Besides those blowout wins against the Tri-City Americans and Spokane Chiefs, they’re 3-4 in that span against division teams on the hunt for the playoffs.
They’ll get to renew one of those rivalries when they host the Swift Current Broncos tonight at Co-op Place. It’s the first matchup between the Tigers since Swift Current spent big at the deadline, acquiring Arizona Coyotes’ forward prospect Conor Geekie from the Wenatchee Wild and defenceman Tyson Galloway from the Calgary Hitmen. They also signed 6-foot-5 import defenceman and Los Angeles Kings prospect Jakub Dvorak.
Swift Current has had Medicine Hat’s number so far, winning two of the three matchups. It’s a test St. Martin says they’re ready for, especially coming at home.
“We tend to not play very good in the past games we’ve played, so we don’t lose at home and we’re going to get those two points,” St. Martin said. “We don’t care what they did at the deadline, we know our group is good and we trust our group. So we’re going to go and play our game and we can get the two points.”
Lindstrom out 4-6 weeks
The Tigers will look to find that consistency and success without forward Cayden Lindstrom, who has missed the last nine games with an upper body injury and will remain out for another four to six weeks following a surgery last Wednesday.
Head coach Willie Desjardins says nothing changes for the group as they’ve played without Lindstrom since the holiday break and will have to continue doing so.
As for the 17-year-old, who is back home recovering from the surgery, he was slated to play at the CHL top prospects game on Jan. 24 and is a projected top-10 pick in the upcoming NHL draft. With the longer term injury interrupting an important and promising season for Lindstrom, Desjardins says his message to the young star is to utilize the time ahead.
“It’s like anything in life, it’s what you do with what happens, not what happens, it’s what you do with it,” Desjardins said. “He’s got a chance to get healthy, get rested up and come back while the rest of the league is tired. He can come back fresh. So he’s got to use it and make sure he’s ready when he comes back.”
