NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers goaltender Jordan Switzer makes a stick save in the first period of the Tigers' 4-3 overtime loss Saturday at Co-op Place to the Saskatoon Blades.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers enter a normal week after their busiest stretch yet this season.
The Tigers finished off a stretch of a four games in five nights with a pair of losses, falling 3-2 at Edmonton to the Oil Kings on Friday and 4-3 in overtime to the Saskatoon Blades on Saturday at Co-op Place.
They come out of the week with a 1-2-1 record, the lone win a 3-2 overtime win Wednesday at Prince Albert over the Raiders. In Friday’s loss, the Tigers led 2-1 after 40 minutes but it was Edmonton who scored two unanswered in the third for the win. Saturday, Saskatoon grabbed a one-goal lead three times before Medicine Hat responded each time to force overtime.
Ryder Ritchie and Bryce Pickford scored in Friday’s game, both also finding twine in Saturday’s loss for their third and 10th goals of the season, respectively. Pickford leads the WHL in defenceman goals scored.
Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll also scored Saturday. Gavin McKenna had assists in both games, extending his WHL leading point total to 15 goals and 48 points, also extending his point streak to nine games.
Head coach Willie Desjardins, not happy with the losing result Saturday, liked how his team was able to respond.
“It was the young guys, they’re lots of guys who are trying, there’s lots of effort,” Desjardins said. “I’m never happy with not getting the win and we have to get some wins here. We just have to find ways.
“But our team has gotten better. We should get (Andrew) Basha back probably in a couple weeks here, so that’ll be good to get him back, that’ll help.”
Desjardins provided updates on the Tigers’ two other injuries, and says forward Hayden Harsanyi won’t be back until after Christmas, while goaltender Harrison Meneghin is day to day.
“He looks pretty good, maybe he’d miss another weekend, I don’t know yet, but we have to wait till we see how it calms down,” Desjardins said.
The 20-year-old Meneghin left Wednesday’s win late in the first period with a lower Boyd injury, unable to put weight on his right leg as he skated off. Jordan Switzer has manned the Tigers’ crease since, impressing Desjardins in the mean time.
“He was big early (Saturday), we weren’t super sharp in the first period,” Desjardins said. “We got better as the game went on. He’s pretty calm in the net, he’s pretty solid and those are tough games, too. Prince Albert, he came in, made two big saves right off the bat and we got a win out of that one.
“It’s good to see, really good to see he’s played well. He’s given us a chance in every game.”
The 17-year-old Switzer didn’t want to take the crease with an injury to Meneghin but he is looking to make the best of it and keep his team in the game. He made a save-of-the-year candidate in the first period Saturday, getting bumped into and while on his back, reaching out his blocker to stop the puck on the goal line.
“The guy fell on top of me and I was just trying to get something over there,” Switzer said with a smile.
The Edmonton product had family spread out around Rogers Place on Friday, with some sharing a suite his uncle has, as well as others in the bowl. He stopped 29 shots in that game, making another 27 saves on Saturday.
“Those (two) teams know how to win, they know how to score goals,” Switzer said. “So we can learn lots from these games and going on, later into the season, we will be one of those teams.”
The Tigers (13-11-1) come out of the weekend sitting first in the Central division, leading the second place Lethbridge Hurricanes (12-8-1-1) by one point with three more games played. They’re off until Friday when they host the Brandon Wheat Kings, a night before they host the newly-loaded Calgary Hitmen on Saturday.
It’ll be the first time the Tigers will face Calgary since they acquired 20-year-old defencemen Kalem Parker from the Moose Jaw Warriors and Pittsburgh Penguins prospect Tanner Howe from the Regina Pats.
“We better be ready Friday, that’s all I can say, those are big games,” Desjardins said. “Sometimes you take a week, you relax a little bit, we have a lot of work to do. We have to get going. So it’s a big week and we have to be ready for the weekend.”
