NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Ryder Ritchie looks for options with the puck during a first period power play in the Tigers' 5-0 preseason win Saturday at Co-op Place over the Calgary Hitmen.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers gave a preview of what the opening night roster could look like over the weekend.
The Tigers picked up their first win of the preseason with a veteran heavy lineup Saturday night, beating the Calgary Hitmen 5-0 at Co-op Place. Ethan McCallum started the game, working a 22-save shutout in his first appearance of the preseason.
He wasn’t expecting that kind of outcome but says he just focused on staying even keel throughout.
“At the end of the day, you just want to be there for the team and the guys came out hard for me, so I owed it to them to play that way, it was just nice to get that in the end,” McCallum said.
Both Oasiz Wiesblatt and Gavin McKenna recorded a goal and an assist and newly acquired defenceman Jonas Woo and forward Ryder Ritchie scored in their first appearances in the orange and black.
“It was definitely different,” Ritchie said about his first game as a Tigers. “The whole routines changed but it was fun to put on the Tigers jersey and play game for the Tigers.
“It’s been a been a while since we played games, so we were a little rusty to start, but I think we got better as the game went on.”
Medicine Hat outshot the Hitmen 29-22, killing off six penalties. The Tigers scored on their lone power play, capitalizing in the dying seconds of the opening frame.
Head coach Willie Desjardins says his focus was more on the new players than the returning vets.
“You know your older guys are going to be there when you get playing, so it was a good game,” Desjardins said. “Ethan played really well in net, that was huge for us.
“It was good to see Woo, Veeti (Väisänen), (Niilopekka) Muhonen and (Koray) Bozkaya in, all those guys played well, stepped up and we’re good. The Rucks were good. It was good just to see all the new guys and see how they played.”
The win evens up the Tigers’ preseason record at 1-1, coming off a 4-1 loss Tuesday at Lethbridge to the Hurricanes. It’s also the last one featuring a majority of veterans, with 11 skaters heading to NHL camps starting this week. They have two game left on their preseason schedule, heading to Red Deer on Friday to face the Rebels before hosting the Hurricanes on Sunday.
Desjardins says the expected subtractions has led to the larger roster coming out of training camp.
“We’re down in numbers, but that’s why we have kept so many people around because we know next week we’re gonna get down,” Desjardins said. “We’ll have enough to get through and that’ll be good, guys will get a chance to play and that’s what they need. These young guys want to play.”
One of those players heading to NHL camp, Brayden Boehm, had a special individual moment Saturday night. The 20-year-old scored in the second period and unleashed a celebration months in the making.
Saturday was Boehm’s first game since Oct. 22, 2023, the night his season ended due to a knee injury. The Nanaimo product says scoring in his first game felt like a weight was lifted off his shoulders.
“It’s nice to come back and then have that success right away, it’s something I’ve trained for in those past months, I felt unbelievable,” Boehm said.
“Personally, for me it was a huge moment to kind of obviously get that monkey off the back and have that moment to not worry about that the next month or so. It was definitely something I’ve dreamt about and thought about for the past 10 months.”
