NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Zach Zahara slides to his right to make a pad save in the first period of a 5-2 win Jan. 16 at Co-op Place over the Swift Current Broncos.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The race for that Central division lead the Medicine Hat Tigers currently occupy added a new combatant recently and the two teams will square off this weekend.
The Tigers open up a home-and-home series tonight with the Swift Current Broncos, facing the division rivals on the road at the InnovationPlex. They’ll host the green and blue club on Saturday at Co-op Place.
The Broncos have turned it on in their last 10 games, with an 8-1-1 record and four straight wins, propelling them into a tie for second in the Central with the Red Deer Rebels, having a game in hand. Swift Current’s stud deadline acquisition Conor Geekie has found his stride in his new colours, with 12 goals and 26 points in 15 games since being acquired Jan. 4.
Swift Current has led the season series against the Tigers this year, with a 3-1-1 record against Medicine Hat. It’s a matchup associate coach Joe Frazer says they’re excited for and a road building they are looking to find a win in.
“The guys are excited to go in there, it hasn’t been a kind building to us recently,” Frazer said. “It’s an area we’re looking forward to getting in there and having a better game than we’ve had in the past. Usually it’s been our starts that have killed us in there and we’ve worked our way back into games. Now this week it’s exciting because we know we have to have a good start and they’re going to be ready, they’re playing well. It should be a fun weekend but we have to make sure we start on time going in there.”
The Tigers’ two wins over the Broncos have come in dramatics fashion – an 8-7 overtime road win Oct. 6 that featured two three-goal comebacks, cemented by Gavin McKenna’s hat trick goal in overtime, plus a two-goal comeback, shorthanded 5-2 win Jan. 16 at Co-op Place.
Medicine Hat was missing forwards Andrew Basha, Cayden Lindstrom and Tomas Mrsic in the January win, playing with 17 skaters and only nine natural forwards.
Despite the resilience and dramatics, head coach Willie Desjardins says there isn’t much to takeaway from the win over a month later beyond not looking past their opponent.
“We went into their rink and they were really shorthanded early in the year and they beat us,” Desjardins said. “Sometimes when you’re short handed the other team thinks you’re just going to be easy, and you should never think that. So one thing we learned from the first time is it’s always going to be hard and we have to be ready.
“We know this team’s good, they’ve added with Geekie and they’ve added lots with Jakub Dvorak as well, so it’s going to be a big test for us and we’re going to have to play our best.”
The Tigers will remain without forward Cayden Lindstrom, who is still listed as week-to-week and is in week five of a 4-6 week recovery timeline from surgery on a wrist injury. Besides him, they should have a full lineup, but like all teams, players are still dealing with minor injuries that aren’t severe enough to put them on the shelf. Those take their own toll.
Desjardins says there’s no way to manage the bumps and bruises beyond doing whatever it takes to be ready for the weekend.
“Whatever you need to do during the week, if you need time off you need time off, and if you don’t, then you practise and you’re ready, it’s all about the weekends,” Desjardins said. “It’s not about what you do during the week, it’s find ways on the weekend to be your best.”
As the Tigers work for the weekend like the 1981 Loverboy hit song suggests, they’re also keeping their sights set on winning their first Central division title since the 2017-18 season.
With four division titles on his resume, Desjardins says they can’t worry about holding onto the lead but have to remain focused on winning their weekend slates and playing smart against teams like Swift Current.
He says they have to continue to focus on their habits, something they didn’t see in their 9-7 win Monday over the Edmonton Oil Kings, allowing three third period goals. With that focus on their habits and playing their best hockey with playoffs near, Desjardins cautions they are still one of the younger teams in the league – a fact he has to remind himself of as well.
“We had some good success early and we were healthy early, that’s why we probably had that success,” Desjardins said. “We got banged up after that but you still hope you’re pushed to be that group. But we’re young, we moved our older goaltender, we have young guys, I’m pretty happy with this group, how they’ve played and what they’ve done. There’s lots of big games they’ve come through and surprised us. Look at the Saskatoon game last weekend, (Oasiz) Wiesblatt is out, we came back and played a really good game.
“They’ve surprised me a lot of times with their effort and how hard they’ve played and we need a few more surprises down the road.”
