NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Hunter St. Martin celebrates his goal in the third period of a 4-2 win Saturday at Co-op Place over the Swift Current Broncos.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
A shorthanded Medicine Hat Tigers lineup got a boost from a thousand extra fans at Co-op Place on Saturday night.
The Tigers battled a depleted lineup over the weekend in a home-and-home series with the Swift Current Broncos, looking to stay afloat in the Central division race while only having 15 skaters available for both contests.
After an 8-4 loss Friday at Swift Current, the Tigers bounced back with a 4-2 win Saturday in front of 4,528 fans, the largest attendance at Co-op Place this season. With a mix of Tigers faithful and Swift Current fans who made the trip for the rivalry matchup, it was the home team coming out on top.
“That was an amazing atmosphere,” forward Hunter St. Martin said. “Another reason it was my favourite win of the year. You had the Swift fans here, our fans and it’s a battle, it’s a playoff game. Swift is just a great rival there and it’s feisty on the ice and the crowd is fighting for who’s trying to be louder. That was amazing.”
St. Martin had a goal and an assist in the win, with Andrew Basha notching two goals and an assist and Hayden Harsanyi scoring the game winner with a backhand, breakaway move. Zach Zahara made 28 saves in a bounce-back game for the Tigers who had lost four straight entering play and badly needed some positive momentum.
The win also kept the Broncos from clinching the Central division title at Co-op Place. Swift Current still leads the division by three points with a game in hand, and they face the Red Deer Rebels on Wednesday. Medicine Hat would need to win their remaining two games and have Swift Current lose out, with the Broncos holding the tie breaker.
More than likely, it’ll be a Tigers and Rebels first-round matchup. But beyond two points and a closer division race, the win Saturday brought much needed reassurance as injuries and losses piled up for the orange and black.
“We really needed it and what we needed is we needed to play well,” head coach Willie Desjardins said. “With what we had in the lineup tonight, that’s a really tough win, you just don’t get those wins all the time when you play (like that). But we had to play well as a group and it was outstanding how hard the guys played.”
The Tigers continued to be without Cayden Lindstrom and Brayden Boehm, Marcus Pacheco remains out week to week, Vasyl Spilka missed the weekend’s action, Shane Smith was scratched and Oasiz Wiesblatt was out with illness. In Friday’s loss they were without Gavin McKenna and Reid Andresen, also with illness.
Desjardins hopes they can get healthy with only two games remaining in the regular season and the playoffs to start the week after. He says it’s too early to tell what a Game 1 lineup would look like for the Tigers but says the week ahead will help get players rested.
“We’re encouraged by the guys and how they’re playing on the ice,” Desjardins said.
Saturday’s contest saw defenceman Matt Paranych step into a forward role, joining Nate Corbet as the second Tigers D-man to adapt a new role to fit the team need. It was his performance and other 16-year-old Tigers’ plays over the weekend against the loaded-up Broncos that stood out to Desjardins.
“Have to give a lot of credit to Paranych, he played really good tonight with that group,” Desjardins said.
“Harsanyi’s goal was a huge goal, those are young guys, Harsanyi, Paranych (Kadon) McCann, all those young guys playing against guys like (Conor) Geekie and that big line. That’s a hard, hard task and you have to give them a lot of credit.”
Coming out of the weekend with the final series of the regular campaign ahead, a home-and-home with the Lethbridge Hurricanes starting Friday at the Enmax Centre, Desjardins says they will take some confidence from having the shorthanded success, but he’s looking for them to continue finding their game as the most important contests await.
“What we have to do is be playing our game going into playoffs, that’s what’s important,” Desjardins said. “Even though we’ve lost some games, the Saskatoon game was a good game, we had a really good game against Brandon at home, so we’ve had some good games. It wasn’t that they’ve all been bad, but this was an exceptional effort.”
