NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers captain Oasiz Wiesblatt gets in front of a one-time blast from Calgary Hitmen defenceman Carter Yakemchuk on a five-on-three power play in the first period of a 5-2 Tigers' win Monday at Co-op Place.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers didn’t set any resolutions for the New Year. But in the final game of 2024, set an example of how they’ll have to play if they want to achieve the ultimate goal.
The Tigers banded together on the penultimate day of 2024, holding on for a 5-2 win Monday at Co-op Place over the Calgary Hitmen. It’s a win that keeps them in first place of the Central division with a 21-14-2 record and capped off a three-in-three weekend with five of six possible points.
The victory also puts the Tigers’ 2024 calendar year record at 36-26-6-2.
Head coach Willie Desjardins says Monday’s win showed heart and character from his group and he thought displayed a team playing for one another when they needed it most. Heading into the holidays he asked for more from his group.
“It was even above what I expected,” Desjardins said. “There’s guys tired, guys that aren’t on top of their game and are hurt right now. Guys are playing hurt and still find ways to play hard. It was how hard the guys were cheering for each other on the bench too. It was really good to see, the guys just wanted to find a way to get a win.”
They had five different goal scorers in the win, with Mat Ward, Wiebslatt, Jonas Woo, Bryce Pickford and Hunter St. Martin all finding the back of the net. The Tigers injury woes that dominated the first-half of the season continue into the New Year as they were missing eight skaters across the weekend.
Forward Gavin Mckenna (Canada) and defenceman Veeti Väisänen (Finland) at the World Juniors, Cayden Lindstrom with the Columbus Blue Jackets and five injured players. Forward’s Andrew Basha and Carter Cunningham are listed as day to day, all three of Hayden Harsanyi (lower-body injury), Harrison Meneghin (lower-body injury), Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll (lower-body injury) are week to week.
Basha suffered an injury late in Saturday’s 4-0 win over the Lethbridge Hurricanes and remained out of the lineup the rest of the weekend. Cunningham was on the wrong side of a first period, open-ice hit in Sunday’s 4-3 overtime loss at Calgary, also missing play afterwards.
Desjardins had no update on either injury after Monday’s game. With all three of the players injured week to week to remain out at least another week, Desjardins says they’ll continue to just tread water with the shorthanded lineup.
“We just have to stay in the hunt until we can get some bodies back,” Desjardins said. “We have to stay there and every game for us is a big game, every game is huge. So it was big to get this, and it’s great with the fans we had the last couple games. We had lots of fan and that’s always nice to play in front our fans.”
Saturday’s contest saw 4,885 electrify Co-op Place and another 3,519 were in attendance for Monday’s win. Both night’s saw Tigers’ starter Jordan Switzer stand tall in net, as the 17-year-old started all three games over the weekend for Medicine Hat. He was a large part of their success, making 17 saves in a shutout win Saturday, stopping 36 saves Sunday to force overtime before making 21 saves in Monday’s win.
“He deserved it, he had a really good game against Lethbridge, he got us points against Calgary up there,” Desjardins said. “They dominated the third period (Sunday) and he found a way to get his points. So I decided he deserved the chance to try to get three and he was outstanding.”
Switzer couldn’t remember if he had ever played three straight during a regular season stretch, but he started five straight playoff games last season for the U18 Northern Alberta Xtreme.
“As a young guy I have found myself, you don’t get this chance often as a 17-year-old goalie, so just make most of it,” Switzer said.
“Especially with the travel it makes it just that much harder. But the guys in the room, it’s easy to battle for them night in and night out. You can see us blocking shots late in the game, or cheering, so it’s really good. It’s really fun to play that many games in that many nights.”
For Switzer, he’s worked himself into a 13-5-2 record on the season, 9-3-2 since he took over for the injured Meneghin. He was the starter out of necessity with the only other option and affiliate 15-year-old Cash Christie. Since the reacquisition of Zach Zahara on Dec. 13, Switzer has started five of six games.
It’s his net for now and the Edmonton product is looking to just play at the same level, striving for better but not settling for any less.
“(Matt) Wonger and I talked about kind of not getting too high, not getting too low, that was a big thing for me, especially playing three-in-three,” Switzer said. “I never rode the high after the shutout and I didn’t ride the low after the OT loss. That perfect medium is what I need to find.”
With an early lead in the first, the Tigers killed off a five-on-three advantage for the Hitmen with a plethora of blocked shots.
“The boys stepped up huge,” captain Oasiz Wiebslatt said. “There was a lot of blocked shots and obviously (Jordan) Switzer standing on his head.”
The Tigers are off until Friday when they head to Swift Current for the first of a home-and-home with the Swift Current Broncos. Desjardins hopes his team remembers how satisfying it can be to win as a unit.
“When you win as a team, it’s even better than just winning and they should be pretty proud of themselves with how hard they battled here,” Desjardins said.
