NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Noah Davidson follows through on a pass during a scrimmage on the first day of training camp on Aug. 28 at Co-op Place. Davidson took a puck to the face in the game and is looking to play his first preseason game this weekend when the Tigers go to Whitehorse for the Yukon Showcase.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers head to the Yukon looking to capture a second piece of hardware in 2025.
The Tigers leave today for Whitehorse with the WHL’s Yukon Showcase to get underway tonight. They will face the Kelowna Rockets in a pair of preseason games at Takhini Arena in Whitehorse, with the winner of the two-game set capturing the WHL Northern Lights Cup, the league announced Wednesday.
“It’s really exciting, it’s a great time of year where we’re forming our team with a lot of new guys to just get away and be with the team, it should be a great weekend,” associate coach Joe Frazer said. “We were on the call with the Whitehorse committee and I know how excited they are and the guys are itching to get going again so it’s going to be a fun weekend.”
The WHL Northern Lights Cup, commissioned for the WHL Yukon Showcase and created by Lumel Studios using northern lights-series glasswork, will be unveiled publicly for the first time Thursday, a league release says.
Proceeds from the WHL Yukon Showcase are slated to benefit Sport Yukon’s Kids Recreation Fund, which provides $500 grants to eligible families to allow children to participate in sports and recreation.
Kelowna will be the home team for Friday’s game, the Tigers having home honours on Saturday. With a winner of the weekend to be determined, if either game ends in a tie after regulation a shootout will determine a winner. If they split the two games, there will be a three-on-three overtime until a goal is scored and the Showcase winner is decided.
Both games get underway at 8 p.m. MST on Victory+, the free-to-watch streaming service the WHL partnered with starting in the 2025 playoffs.
The pair of games will be the first WHL look for offseason signing Noah Davidson who was ineligible for the Tigers’ preseason games against the Lethbridge Hurricanes. The 16-year-old product of Irvine, Calif. took a puck to the face on the first day of training camp and was off the ice until recent, returning with a cage.
He’s looking forward to getting into a game and for the unique experience of the Showcase.
“It’s really exciting, the first Dub games for me and obviously it’s a pretty cool playing in the Yukon, just looking forward to it,” Davidson said.
“Even though it’s preseason, all the guys are working at their best, the speed’s really high and it’s something I’ll have to get adjusted to, but I’m not worried about that. I have great teammates to work with.”
Davidson says it took him a couple of weeks to get back to normal after getting hit with the puck, a freak play that has left him with an inch-long scar on his lip. After he realized he was OK, Davidson says he heard some ribbing on getting used to wearing a visor for the first time.
“A lot of the guys were just saying, ‘Welcome to the Dub,'” Davidson said. “The first time wearing a visor, take a puck to the face. It is what it is, some bad luck, but it’s all right.”
As soon as he’s cleared to, Davidson says he’ll return to wearing just a visor, getting that scar some more time to shine.
Davidson has worked on one of the Tigers’ power play units since returning to full action. With five skaters at NHL camps and three injuries, the Tigers’ special teams work has involved almost all 19 skaters heading to the Yukon.
Frazer says players being gone gives those with the team an opportunity to get special teams work in and also make roster decisions tougher for the coaches.
“Special teams are a huge part of the game, and you have to be good on both penalty killing and power play are equally as important,” Frazer said. “Guys know that in practice it’s just like a game, they’re being evaluated. So it’s great to see the compete out there and when the power play goes hard, it makes penalty kill better. Penalty kill goes hard and makes the power play better. So it’s that competition that makes everyone better when everyone’s doing their job and competing.”
