Medicine Hat Tigers forward Hunter St. Martin skates during practice Thursday at Rimouski's Colisée Financière Sun Life ahead of the 105th Memorial Cup. The Tigers take on the host Oceanic in their first game, Friday evening at 5 p.m. MST.-- NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
RIMOUSKI, QUE.
The Medicine Hat Tigers have settled into Rimouski and the Memorial Cup experience.
The Tigers flew from Calgary on Wednesday after a rousing send-off from fans at Co-op Place earlier in the morning. They arrived into Rimouski for the 105th Memorial Cup and were first on the ice on Thursday, getting an early chance to acclimate to the place they’ll call home for the next week – or more, they hope.
“We’re super excited to get back to the Cup, it’s a real honour to be able to come here and represent the Western Hockey League,” head coach Willie Desjardins said during the coaches’ press conference. “It’s going to be an exciting tournament, for sure. I’ve looked at film on the other teams and how well coached they are, so it’ll be exciting for us.”
The Tigers’ last game was May 16, Game 5 of the WHL finals, a 4-2 win at Spokane over the Chiefs to claim the Hat’s sixth title in franchise history.
“It’s huge to get out on the ice and get a feel for the ice, because it’s always different in different rinks, and getting acclimated to everything, really,” forward Hunter St. Martin said Thursday. “So it’s a big thing to get here early and get a practice in, and then you can pregame scout, too. So it’s gonna be really good for the group.”
They are in Rimouski looking for a third Memorial Cup trophy, the first since 1988. They’re also looking to get the WHL back on top of the CHL; it’s been 11 years since the Edmonton Oil Kings bested the OHL’s Guelph Storm in 2014 to claim the cup.
It’s a Memorial Cup championship drought not lost on the Tigers.
“We’re really motivated to get it back to the Western league,” St. Martin said. “You just want more. You get that taste of winning and you want more. That’s the biggest feeling in our locker room, is resetting and getting ready to bring this home.”
Captain Oasiz Wiesblatt says they’ll continue working hard, touting their high-effort drive as their biggest strength heading into the tournament.
“We’re really fast, we transition really well, but I think our No. 1 thing is that we really work hard,” Wiesblatt said. “We come in, seven in the morning and do hard workouts, get on the air bike and stuff like that. Our team is a really hard-working, driven team.”
The Tigers kick off the tournament against the host Rimouski Oceanic tonight, a game that will bring a hostile home atmosphere to begin the round robin. Forward Gavin McKenna says they expect a hard-working effort from the Oceanic.
“We know it’s gonna be different style of hockey, we don’t fully know what they play like, so we just have to be ready and play our game, because we know how we can play,” McKenna said. “So just be ready, they’re going to play hard and they’re going to have the crowd and it’s going to be hostile, so we want to try to feed off that as well.”
Desjardins provided an update on forward Cayden Lindstrom, who returned for the WHL Championship series after missing over a year while recovering and rehabbing from a back injury. The Columbus Blue Jackets prospect was scratched in Game 4, a pre-determined scratch, and started Game 5 but did not play in the second or third period of the championship-clinching win. He says Lindstrom, who had two goals and four points in four games in the finals, isn’t yet up to speed but he hopes he will be able to play.
“He missed a little bit the final series, it wasn’t his back it was different injuries, so we’re hoping that he’ll be back and ready to go. He’s an exciting player when he’s healthy.”
The Tigers were able to see the city a bit after arriving Wednesday, going for walks from the hotel before they kicked preparations into full gear Thursday. St. Martin says he’s been to Montreal once, his only experience in Quebec before arriving for the Memorial Cup.
“(Rimouski is) a pretty cool little little town, it’s definitely different from the Albertas of the world, but it’s pretty cool seeing all the communities,” St. Martin said.
