NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Zach Zahara squares up to a Lethbridge Hurricanes shooter in the first period of a 6-3 preseason loss at Co-op Place on Sept. 15.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
For the second year in the row the Medicine Hat Tigers will break camp with a trio of net minders on the roster.
Zach Zahara, Ethan McCallum and Jordan Switzer will all be at Co-op Place on opening night Saturday, with two in the lineup and one in the press box as the Tigers host the Edmonton Oil Kings.
It’s a familiar scene for Zahara and McCallum. Both started last season sharing the crease with then 19-year-old Evan May. The trio rotated the duties for the first half of the season before May was traded to the Moose Jaw Warriors at the deadline. They then shared duties in the second half and playoffs.
Zahara says he’ll carry the same mindset into this season as he did last year with the trio, remaining focused on one day at a time until his number is called to start. He says McCallum and Switzer have been good competition and good goalie partners to start the season.
“They push me every single day, they’re super competitive guys,” Zahara said. “In practice we always try to have little competition, it’s been super competitive and it’s a good competition.”
The 19-year-old Zahara worked in 31 games last year with a 16-7-3-2 record with a 3.15 goals against average and a .893 save percentage. He appeared in three playoff games, with a win and an overtime loss, with a 3.08 GAA and a .908 save percentage.
McCallum was between the pipes for 23 games last season, with an 11-8-1 record with 3.06 GAA and a .886 save percentage. The 18-year-old also appeared in three playoff games, with three losses, a 3.53 GAA and a .869 save percentage.
McCallum made his mental game a focus of his offseason work, getting better at staying even keel as opposed to riding the rollercoaster of ups and downs in games and through the week.
“No matter what happened the play before, good or bad, you just have to shake it off and be ready. You just can’t let off the gas,” McCallum said.
The third goaltender in the mix, 17-year-old Switzer, came in relief in a game for a win last year and had one start where he was lifted in the first period. His stat line from the 2023-24 season is a 3.74 GAA and a .875 save percentage.
Swizter spoke with the News before the preseason and says he enjoys the competition of earning his spot.
“Obviously there’s a little more pressure because you have that in the back of your mind, you can actually make it this year,” Switzer said. “But it’s just going to be putting your head down, sticking in the process and whatever happens, happens.”
All three appeared in the preseason with varying degrees of success and with different lineups in front of them.
Switzer made two appearances, one start, allowing four goals on 38 shots, both games with a younger lineup. Zahara made one start, allowing six goals on 27 shots with a young lineup in front of him. McCallum stopped all 22 shots he faced in his lone preseason game, with a near WHL-full lineup in the orange and black.
Head coach Willie Desjardins says it’s hard to evaluate all three off the preseason and says none of them have taken a starter spot, something he says has to happen soon.
“No one has come up and really taken it and said, ‘I’m the guy,’ and that’s what we want,” Desjardins said. “We want one of our guys to take it and be the guy, and they haven’t done that yet. So that’ll have to happen pretty soon, though. We’d like to go with two, that’d be what you want. But right now that’s not established.”
Desjardins says they certainly want their goaltending sorted before the trade deadline in January.
“It just takes somebody to start running with it.”
