Medicine Hat Tigers forward Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll attempts a backhander on Calgary netminder Anders Miller in the first period Saturday night at Co-op Place. Gordon-Carroll was making his season debut following an injury, notching a pair of goals and an assist in a 7-1 win.--NEWS PHOTO ZOE MASON
zmason@medicinehatnews.com
The Medicine Hat Tigers were on a roll this weekend, picking up two wins in two games against division rivals.
The Tigers won 4-2 on Friday in Lethbridge before a dominant Saturday night performance, 7-1, over the Calgary Hitmen.
“It feels awesome. We played good as a team, we scored the most important goals in the first and the second period. Just feels really good,” said forward Yaroslav Bryzgalov, who racked up four points over two games this weekend, including his first two WHL goals.
The Tigers also regained an important asset this weekend, as Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll returned to the lineup on Saturday. He came in with no rust though, putting up two goals and an assist in his first game back.
“It was really good getting Carroll back. That was a huge plus for us. He just drives lines,” head coach Willie Desjardins said Saturday after the game.
“It was good to come back after having two months out. I felt like I was ready,” Gordon-Carroll said. “It was a good confidence booster for me and the team.”
Looking ahead, the Tigers have their first three-game week of the season, starting with the division-leading Edmonton Oil Kings on Wednesday.
“They’re a really good team,” Desjardins said. “They’re fast, they’re hard, they like playing us. They always come hard against us. So we’re gonna have to kind of regroup here a little bit, but we’ll have to have to have our best game of the year if we’re going to win.”
“It’s a big game,” added Gordon-Carroll. “We’re looking forward to the next game, playing disciplined, playing hard and playing Tigers hockey.”
Desjardins feels like his team has been performing on all four lines, especially after an impressive depth performance Saturday. Still, he says there are lessons the team can take from the weekend and adjustments that can be made ahead of their hardest matchup yet.
“We took a couple penalties we didn’t need to take, which hurt us,” he said. “I think we did give them some chances, so we need to tighten up a little bit.”
The Tigers took seven penalties Saturday but did not allow any power play goals.
With another back-to-back coming this weekend, rookie goaltender Carter Casey is likely to get his second shot between the pipes. Both his coach and his teammates were impressed by his debut performance Saturday. Casey says he’s eager to keep the momentum going.
“We got a lot of games coming up in October, which is good,” he said. “I think we’re all excited to get to get the season rolling and get a lot of games in here. I just want to build off that. I thought I played well tonight, but I thought the team played really well in front of me.
“So I think every night, if I can just give the team a chance to win – I got a pretty good group in front of us, so we can do that a lot of the time.”
