NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Markus Ruck reaches for a puck at the same time as Lethbridge Hurricanes' defenceman Noah Chadwick in the first period of a Tigers' 10-1 win on March 22 at Co-op Place. The two teams meet in the Eastern Conference Champiosnhip series with Game 1 tonight at Co-op Place.
A new chapter in the Highway 3 rivalry will be written tonight at Co-op Place.
The Medicine Hat Tigers host the Lethbridge Hurricanes for Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Championship Series in just the third meeting between the two clubs in the playoffs. It’s the first meeting since 2017 when Lethbridge won in Game 7 overtime with a shorthanded goal from Tyler Wong.
It’s a series that has been a long time coming between the two clubs. The Tigers won the season series 5-3, with four wins coming at Co-op Place including the final game, a 10-1 drubbing on March 21 against a preseason-like Lethbridge lineup.
Head coach Willie Desjardins says there is no one key for success for his team in the series.
“This is one game at a time, it really doesn’t matter,” Desjardins said. “You play that game, then it doesn’t matter, it’s just the next game. It’s hard to win four games, so every game is going to be its own game. There isn’t one thing I can say that’s going to be the difference. It’s just going to be two teams that want it, and they’re going to battle and that’s what’s going to happen.”
The Tigers have been off since April 17 after sweeping the Prince Albert Raiders. Lethbridge comes into Friday’s meeting off a 3-1, Game 7 win Wednesday in Calgary to take the second-round series with the Hitmen. Lethbridge assistant coach Ryan Aasman says they can use the quick turnaround as an advantage.
“When you when you look at it, there’s not a lot of time to think, you just have to hop back in,” Aasmen ahead of morning skate Friday. “When you look at how our playoffs have gone, we had a really hard series versus Brandon, it was physically demanding. Then when we got to Calgary, we were battle tested and ready for a long one. So we’ve been in the fight since day one of playoffs and that’s really important just to keep in the groove of things.”
Medicine Hat forward Gavin McKenna enters the series with a 49 game point streak, one game away from tying Alexander Radulov’s 50-game streak in the regular season playoffs set in the 2005-06 season with the Quebec Remparts. He has six goals and 22 points in nine playoff games and the 17-year-old winger says his line with Oasiz Wiesblatt and Ryder Ritchie will stay status quo as the Hurricanes try to shut them down.
“Every team this year has been setting up their top D-pair, top defensive line against us and we’ve had success all year so I don’t think anything changes,” McKenna said. “We just keep playing the way we can. When we’ve played good defense, that’s when the offense comes, so we’re ready if they’re throwing their top lines at us, we’re used to it.”
The Tigers have yet to lose at Co-op Place during these playoffs, running at a 5-0 record. Their lone loss in the playoffs came in Game 3 on the road in the first-round series with the Swift Current Broncos. Lethbridge took control on the road in the second round, with three of their four wins in the series coming at Calgary’s Saddledome, including the series-clinching Game 7 victory.
The puck drops for Game 1 tonight at 7 p.m., tickets are available at Tixx.ca.
