Medicine Hat Tigers rookie forward Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll celebrates scoring his first WHL goal, the eventual game winner, in a 4-2 season-opening victory Saturday at Co-op Place over division rival, the Edmonton Oil Kings.--NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers gave their fans a lot of reasons to remember the 21st night of September.
Missing nine skaters from their opening night lineup, a rookie-infused Tigers’ roster held on for a 4-2 season opening win Saturday night at Co-op Place over the Edmonton Oil Kings.
Five Tigers (Avery Watson, Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll, Luke Ruptash, Riley Steen and Koray Bozkaya) made their WHL debuts and a total of six WHL first goals or points were tallied en route to the win.
“”It’s a big win for us,” head coach Willie Desjardins said. “They’re missing some guys, we’re missing some guys, so we knew it was going to be a battle, but it was good. Our penalty killing was outstanding, they got a late one but I thought the kill was good. (Ethan) McCallum was good in net and our young guys played well.”
The collection of souvenir pucks started early in the contest, with Markus Ruck scoring his first WHL goal 7:52 into the game.
A second puck was collected nearly 10 minutes later for a long awaited tally. After Edmonton had one called back, rookie forward Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll carried the puck up the left side of the ice on a four-on-one rush, sending a pass over to defenceman Matt Paranych who scored his first WHL goal in his 57th game.
The 17-year-old had long chased his first goal, and he celebrated with the weight of the world off his shoulders.
“It’s pretty remarkable, Paranych said with a large smile after the win. “It was a long, long time waiting for that one, but just a good play and I put it home.
“It’s a monkey off the back, a real confidence boost.”
On the play, Gordon-Carroll and Brayden Ryan-MacKay both recorded assists for their first WHL points.
Desjardins was happy to see the defencemen finally get one on the board.
“(Paranych) played hard, he trained so hard in the summer,” Desjardins said. “He’s got so dedicated. he plays so hard, so it was great for him.”
Liam Ruck, not wanting older twin brother Markus to have all the glory in the first period, scored 32 seconds after Paranych for the 3-0 lead.
Saturday night was also the first look at two of the Tigers acquired via trade in the offseason, with defenceman Bryce Pickford and Mat Ward making their Medicine Hat debuts. Jonas Woo was introduced to the crowd of 4,822 but was not in the lineup due to a suspension from his final game with the Wenatchee Wild.
After Edmonton scored in the second, the Tigers responded with yet another first.
In the Edmonton end, 20-year-old forward Brayden Boehm sent a cross-ice pass to Gordon-Carroll who wasted no time getting the puck off his stick with a one-timer.
The Salt Lake City, Utah product was more excited about Paranych getting his first WHL goal.
“Matty P deserves that,” Gordon-Carroll said.
The 15-year-old became the first Tigers U.S. Draft pick to debut in a game since the draft originated in 2020.
“We expect him to be a good player for us,” Desjardins said. “He’s come in highly touted, he’s played well. He’s a big, strong player.”
The Oil Kings made it a 4-2 game with a power play goal in the last five minutes but that was as close as they got, with the Tigers holding on for the opening-night win.
Desjardins liked how his young lineup played with the lead.
“There were parts of the second period that weren’t as good but we did a pretty good job,” Desjardins said. “I thought Pickford was good, Paranych played good on the back end, (Nate) Corbet was solid. Overall I thought we played pretty good. It’s hard, the first game is always hard.”
The Tigers did see injury trouble in the second period Saturday. Luke Ruptash, the Tigers’ first-round pick in the 2024 WHL draft, went hard into the boards and quickly down the tunnel to the dressing room. Desjardins did not have an update on the forward who did not return to the game.
Ethan McCallum made 23 saves in the win as the Tigers outshot Edmonton 41-25. McCallum appreciated the effort from the young group in front of him.
“It was just huge for the young guys to step up like that, I know quite a few of them got on the board, it’s pretty special to see them battle like that,” McCallum said.
“It just shows the maturity among the locker room. We’re generally a young team, but just for those guys to step up like that and be mature, throughout the whole game, not to ride that roller coaster, it’s just really good to see, and to come out on top was special.”
The Tigers will get some reinforcements throughout the next week, with forwards Shane Smith, Ryder Ritchie plus defencemen Josh Van Mulligen and Niilopekka Muhonen now returned to the WHL club from their respective NHL training camps.
The Tigers off until Friday when they head to Red Deer to face the Rebels for the first time since being eliminated by their Central-division rivals in last year’s playoffs.
Paranych, who was in the lineup for that playoff series, says they have a week of work to prepare for the tough test.
“Red Deer is a hard team to play against,” Paranych said. “We’re going to go in there, we’re going to watch video, improve throughout this week and we’ll be ready.
