The Medicine Hat Tigers pose with the Ed Chynoweth Cup after winning 4-2 Friday at Spokane, beating the Chiefs 4 games to 1 in the WHL Championship series to capture the franchise's sixth title.--NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Welcome back to Medicine Hat, Ed, it’s been a long time coming.
The Medicine Hat Tigers captured their sixth Ed Chynoweth Cup on Friday, beating the Spokane Chiefs 4-2 in Game 5 of the WHL Championship series to climb atop the Western Hockey league for the first time since 2007.
It’s a championship tally that ties the Tigers for the most in WHL history with the Kamloops Blazers, each with six league title banners in their respective rinks. The win also completes a legendary second-half record of 42-4-1-1 since Jan. 4.
Hunter St. Martin scored 5:45 into the third period, putting the Tigers up 3-0 on Spokane with what was eventually the championship-clinching goal.
“I couldn’t even put into words how great this feels,” St. Martin said following the game. “From every guy in this lineup to the staff, to the community of Medicine Hat, what really this team has been through over the four years that I’ve been here is unbelievable, and to have this now is just incredible.”
Head coach Willie Desjardins, winning his third WHL championship, says the Tigers won as a family.
“At different times everybody got to play a part and that was really important for us,” Desjardins said in a yellow Gatorade-stained shirt after a celebratory showering from his team.
“It’s important when you get to share things, so that helped us. But I give a lot of credit to Oasiz (Wiesblatt), you go as your leaders go and Oasiz really cares about his teammates, and it’s pretty special for him and the way he was acting.”
The Tigers captain was held without a goal in the WHL finals, recording three assists in the series. His contribution came from the front, leading the way every time he hopped over the bench as the longest tenured player on the roster and the lone full-time representative from the Tigers’ 2021-22 11-win season.
“It’s just incredible and an unbelievable feeling, we have worked towards this for a long time now and it’s really special to do it this year,” Wiesblatt said. “We have a really special team, for us to be resilient like that throughout the whole year, and we still have more. But I’m just really proud of the group.”
Friday’s win capped off a 16-2 playoff run for the Tigers that only saw them drop Game 3 of a first-round series with the Swift Current Broncos and Game 2 of the WHL finals against the Chiefs. Beyond that, they took care of business with sweeps of the Prince Albert Raiders in the second round and the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Championship.
It was a relatively quick run through the postseason – not that it felt like that on the inside.
“When you look at 16-2 throughout the playoffs, it might not have felt like that at times, there were some tough series in there, some tough games,” associate coach Joe Frazer said. “The overtime games against Swift and P.A., the Lethbridge series was hard, Spokane was so good off the rush, fast and skilled. So when you’re in the moment it was tough and then you look back at the record, it’s very incredible.”
The Tigers were defensive stalwarts in their championship run, allowing just 46 goals in 18 games (2.5 goals against per game) while scoring 86 (4.7 goals per game) for a +40 differential. Frazer says it took a buy-in as a team to play that structured, with a group-of-five mindset. They outscored the Chiefs 21-11 in five games, with six of Spokane’s goals coming in their lone win in Game 2 on May 11.
They held the Chiefs’ top line of Berkly Catton, Shea Van Olm and Andrew Cristall to a combined six goals and 14 points. Tigers defenceman Bryce Pickford scored six goals in the series himself, cementing himself in the WHL and CHL record books in the process.
The now two-time WHL champion, having won with the Seattle Thunderbirds in 2023, scored in eight straight games, the longest streak in the WHL’s modern era. His 13 playoff goals are the most in the CHL playoffs since 2000. As happy as he was for his own success, Pickford was happier to see his blue-line partner Jonas Woo get his championship.
“I’m glad I could help, this group is unbelievable, I’ve never been a part of a group closer than this group,” Pickford said.
“Before the games I was just thinking, I want to win for him. We’re brothers and we’re going to be brothers for life and we’re never gonna forget this feeling.”
The Tigers also won from the back end, as Harrison Meneghin finished off his 14th win in the playoffs with 34 saves to capture the title. He was named the WHL’s playoff MVP with a 14-1 record, a .906 save percentage, 2.35 goals against average and three shutouts.
“I’m happy with my play, obviously that’s a lot to do with my teammates and their support and their help on and off the ice,” Meneghin said. “So I couldn’t be more grateful for the award and also my teammates.”
After battling injuries all season, the Tigers saw reinforcements come in time for the finals and needed others to step in to help complete the goal. Forwards Andrew Basha and Cayden Lindstrom returned from long-term injuries, making immediate impacts throughout the series.
Both stepped up in a 6-2 Game 3 win on May 13 at Spokane, filling in as the Tigers were without Gavin McKenna who missed that game and the next due to injury. Basha had a pair of goals and five points in five games, Lindstrom added two goals and four points in four games.
“It’s unbelievable, it’s everything, it’s more,” Basha said. “We still have more to do, we’re not done but this is the stuff you dream of though, and it’s unbelievable.”
McKenna had a goal and three points in three games in the series, finishing third in WHL playoff scoring with nine goals and 39 points in 16 games. He says the championship is a weight off the shoulders as they get ready for the Memorial Cup.
“We’ve been through so much, I don’t think there’s a team who went through more adversity than us this year,” McKenna said. “That’s the reason why we won, because we got tighter as a group after every single setback and we wanted to do it for each other.”
The Tigers will leave for Rimouski, Que. on Wednesday morning and get ready for the first game of the tournament, taking on the host Oceanic on Friday. They’ll face the QMJHL champion Moncton Wildcats on May 26 and the OHL champion London Knights on May 27. All round-robin games for the Tigers will start at 5 p.m. MST.
