Medicine Hat Tigers forward Kadon McCann sends a pass to Marcus Pacheco on a two-on-one shorthanded breakaway in the second period of an 8-1 win over the Red Deer Rebels on Jan. 10. Pacheco scored on the breakaway, notching his first of three goals in the game, two shorthanded.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers have put on quite the show picking up their first four-game winning streak of the season.
The Tigers are in a lull on the schedule, following five games in eight nights, where the Tabbies won the last four games of the stretch for the longest win streak of the season.
After a 4-1 loss at Swift Current on Jan. 3 the Tigers beat the Broncos 5-2 at home. They then beat the Prince Albert Raiders 7-4 on Jan. 8 before rattling off back-to-back wins, topping the Red Deer Rebels 8-1 on Jan. 10 and the Edmonton Oil Kings 6-1 the next night.
“It’s been a long season so far and we haven’t had a four-game win streak, so getting that around this time is super special to us,” forward Kadon McCann said. “We’re not going to take it for granted, we’re going to keep pushing, but it’s pretty cool.”
Associated coach Joe Frazer says the stretch has shown a buy-in from the group.
“We’re playing a team game,” Frazer said. “I really like how hard we’re working right now away from the puck. We’re buying in defensively, which is allowing us to play more offence.
“Now it’s just not getting complacent, making sure we’re getting better every day. It’s a long second half here, so we have to make sure every day we keep improving.”
In that four-game stretch, the Tigers have outscored opponents 26-8, also outshooting their opposition at an almost doubled rate of 159-84. They’ve also found success on special teams, scoring five times on 12 power plays, holding opponents to two power play goals on 16 penalty kills while scoring four shorthanded goals.
“We’re not giving up as many outnumbered rushes as we were at the start of the year, that’s been big,” Frazer said. “We’re doing a really good job racing back to a group of five, getting our quick exits. It all comes down to hard work and structure together. When you watch us, hopefully, you see we’re connected and we’re working hard, that gives us the best chance to have success.”
They’ve had a different offensive leader in each game, 20-year-old former Bronco Mat Ward tallied three goals and two assists in the Jan. 4 win over Swift Current. Kadon McCann had a pair of goals over Prince Albert, Marcus Pacheco notched his first career hat trick in the win over Red Deer, two shorthanded and Hunter St. Martin tallied a shorthanded and power play goal over Edmonton.
Ward has seen the Tigers playing at a level beyond the bios on the league website, a trait he says they’ll need to show in playoffs if they want success.
“Everyone, individually is playing above their age,” Ward said. “Look at the Rucks, they’re not playing like 16-year-olds, Jordan Switzer isn’t playing like a 17-year-old, all throughout the lineup. That’s just a key thing with us, we’re playing older than we actually are.
“When games get heavy and hard, that’s why you need to have older guys and to be playing above your age.”
Not without coincidence, the last three wins of the streak have come after the Tigers’ deadline acquisitions of Nashville Predators defence prospect Tanner Molendyk and forward Misha Volotovskii from the Saskatoon Blades. Additions that have paid dividends on and off the ice, especially on the blue line says fellow defenceman Jonas Woo says.
“It’s really cool having (Molendyk) with us, just a guy you can learn from and talk to and just take things away from,” Woo said.
The Tigers have also benefited from health in that stretch, with the return of Carter Cunningham and ‘only’ omissions from the lineup being a soon-returning Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll and the pair of Andrew Basha and Cayden Lindstrom, both who have missed time already with injury. Having that bit of health, as well as Gavin McKenna and Veeti Väisänen back from the World Juniors, the Tigers inch closer to the full lineup potential they’ve dreamed of since training camp.
“That’s why we’re finding some success here, lately we have six defencemen who all can play, no one has to play 30 minutes and wear guys out. We have four lines, we’re just rolling them,” Frazer said. “We’re keeping guys fresh so we can play at the tempo we want to be.
“We want to be the fastest team league, and to do that you have to go short and hard. So having the four lines and being able to roll them, every lines contributed, that’s been a huge part of our success.”
The win streak has helped the Tigers (25-15-2) maintain pace atop the Eastern conference, sitting tied for first place in the conference and Central division with the Calgary Hitmen (24-11-3-1) who have played three fewer games. The two teams will matchup this weekend for a pair of games.
