NEWS FILE PHOTO
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Gavin McKenna and Prince Albert Raiders forward Niall Crocker square up for a face-off int he first period of a Radiers' 4-3 overtime at Co-op Place on Feb. 8. The Tigers and Raiders meet in Game 1 of the second round tonight.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
A quick start could be the difference in Game 1 tonight at Co-op Place.
The Medicine Hat Tigers and Prince Albert Raiders meet tonight at Co-op Place for Game 1 of their second-round series.
The Tigers haven’t played since April 4 after beating the Swift Current Broncos 4-1 in the first round. They face-off against a Raider club who faced three Game 7s, overcoming a 3-1 series deficit in a comeback, 4-3 first-round series win over the Edmonton Oil Kings that ended on Tuesday.
The Tigers have had nearly a week to rest, recover and get set for the series and according to assistant coach Josh Maser, need to have a quick start to get the series under way.
“The start is going to be huge, we have to come out ready and we have to feed off the energy of the crowd,” Maser said. “The guys are excited to be playing again but Prince Albert played three Game 7s, so their water is hot already. So, we’ve got to get ours going and the starts going to be huge and we have to establish our game early.”
Prince Albert interim head coach Ryan McDonald says they excited to continue the momentum from the first round.
“Coming off the series against Edmonton, we had a couple of days to prepare and get right into it,” McDonald said. “The air is warm, there’s no snow on the ground, there’s golf on TV, this is when you want to play hockey.”
He says that quick start is something they put a premium on for every game and he says there is extra motivation to get the better start in the best-of-seven series.
“Making sure we just invest in the game and invest in the series, it’s important for us to make sure that they’re coming 200 feet through us every time they get the puck,” McDonald said. “Just making sure that we’re playing behind them and making it harder on them.”
The Tigers won the season series 3-0-1 with the Raiders lone win coming at Co-op Place in a 4-3 overtime victory on Feb. 8. Two of the four matchups went into the overtime, the first meeting between the two teams ended with a 3-2 Medicine Hat victory at the Art Hauser Centre on Nov. 8, 2024.
It’s seventh time the two teams have faced in the playoffs, each team winning three series wins. The last matchup was 2005, a Raiders’ series win.
Tigers’ forward Ryder Ritchie will face his former club in the playoffs for the first time since being acquired by Medicine Hat in August. Ritchie has four goals and eight points in the playoffs. It’s the same moment for Raider forward Tomas Mrsic who went the other way in the trade. The former Tiger has a goal and three points through five playoff games, missing the last half of that game and the last two games of the first round with an upper-body injury after taking a skate to the face in Game 5 on April 4.
Prince Albert had found success in the playoffs, as they did in the regular season, on the power play. Their man advantage is ranked first among WHL playoff teams at 33.3 per cent. Their postseason penalty kill ranks sixth entering play Saturday, at 79.3 per cent. In contrast, the Tigers power play (25 per cent) is ninth and the penalty kill (81.2) is fifth.
Both teams have players with double digit points entering the series. Medicine Hat’s Gavin McKenna sits second in league playoff scoring with two goals and 16 points in five games, followed by line mate and captain, Oasiz Wiesblatt whop has seven goals and 12 points. Raiders defenceman Lukas Dragicevic has five goals and 12 points and centreman Aiden Oiring has six goals and 11 points.
It’s a matchup of skill that requires the Tigers to stick to their game Maser says.
“They’ve got a really a lot of really good shooters, they play really good structure, clog things up through the middle. and they’re good in the d-zone, so we’re going to have to do what we do,” Maser said. “We’re going to have to play our game and stick to our basics to be good against them, because I expect them to be good.”
McDonald says they have to be hard on their sticks to limit the Tigers transition and force the home team to come through them instead of skating by them.
As of publishing there’s roughly 200 tickets left for Game 1, falling in line with the Tigers average of 5,792 in attendance through the first round. Prince Albert has benefited from their own fan support, with a sold-out Art Hauser Centre propelling them in the 5-0 Game 7 win Tuesday. McDonald says they’ll just stick to their game as the Tiger crowd looks to take them out of the moment.
“We had a fantastic crowd in Prince Albert in Game 7 Tuesday night and there’s a very loyal fan base here as well,” McDonald said. “So for us, it’s sticking to the process, sticking to our game plan and continuing forward.”
Puck drop for Game 1 is at 7 p.m., tickets can be purchased at Tixx.ca.
