NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Tyler MacKenzie looks for an option with the puck on his stick in the first period of an 4-3 win over the Swift Current Broncos on March 25 at Co-op Place.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Friday night’s Game 1 marked the first playoff experience for all but two Medicine Hat Tigers.
The Tigers enter the round-one WHL playoff series against the first-place Winnipeg Ice with a desire to add as many postseason games to their stat sheets as possible. With only 20-year-olds Dallon Melin and Kurtis Smythe having took the ice in the playoffs, it will be a welcomed moment for every other player.
“It’s weird saying that in my fourth year now I’m just getting to crack in the playoffs, obviously with COVID-19 and everything,” captain Owen MacNeil said heading into Friday’s game. “I’m pretty thrilled, pretty excited. You never want to go into your last season or end your career not being in the playoffs. So to be able to do so this year, I’m really excited.”
While it is an official debut in the postseason for a majority of the team, the second half of the season and even more so in the last month, have brought playoff-like atmospheres as the Tigers maintained a spot in the post season. Forward Tyler MacKenzie says that push only helped boost the excitement.
“It’s pretty exciting, you seeing the things the (WHL) have been posting in the last month, and it gets you really excited and fired up,” MacKenzie said. “A lot of us wanted to get to this point and now that we’re here, you’re at the dance. The battle was making it in and now the battle is staying alive. They’re a great team but I think we have a better team.”
MacKenzie scored the Tigers’ first goal in their playoff-clinching 4-3 win over the Swift Current Broncos on March 25 at Co-op Place. Looking back on that moment and the night as a whole with the crowd atmosphere, MacKenzie just smiled.
“Those are the things you dream of as a kid,” MacKenzie said. “You just want to be able to play in big games and big moments and that was probably the biggest game for a lot of guys’ careers in here. After missing out on the playoffs by so far last year, it was really good to get that one. The fans were awesome, they were buzzing, they were electric and loud the whole game. We just matched their energy.”
He says the playoffs gives the whole team an opportunity to show how good they can be.
“It’s really exciting to get the chance to kind of show what you have and you not only play for yourself, but you have a whole group of guys you’re playing for and you want to play for them and you just want to go out there hard every night,” MacKenzie said. “Playoffs bring a whole other intensity to things but it’s just staying even keel, don’t get too high, don’t get too low but just play hard and you know what’s on the line.”
With Games 1 and 2 of the series in Winnipeg on Friday and Saturday, Games 3 and 4 will be in Medicine Hat and at Co-op Place on Tuesday and Wednesday. Tigers associate coach Joe Frazer says they have done a good job responding all year to high-pressured games and looks for it to continue come puck drop.
Not looking past the first two games of the series, Frazer says he’s looking forward to the Tigers’ faithful continuing their support when the series returns to Medicine Hat.
“I can’t thank the crowd enough for how outstanding they were on Saturday,” Frazer said. “Just the energy and the passion they brought in the building. Go to Friday’s game in Swift and their fans are loud and rowdy and it just gives you an advantage. Then you come here Saturday and that crowd was outstanding. They’re loud, they’re into it. So we just want to thank them for that and hopefully we can get that in playoffs.”
