PHOTO COURTESY PENTICTON VEES
Medicine Hat Tigers forwards Dayton Reschny skates towards a puck behind linemate Liam Ruck in the Tigers' 3-1 win Monday at Penticton over the Vees.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Tigers returned from B.C. with a few more points and some early lessons learned on Canada’s West Coast.
The six-game, 14-day trip saw the Tigers rebound from a 0-2 start to roll into Co-op Place mid-morning Tuesday with seven of the possible 10 points. Going into the trip the Tigers were 1-2 on the road, bringing that record to 4-4-1.
“Everybody had to play a part, we played everybody and they had to be good,” head coach Willie Desjardins said. It was big for us. It’s really tough to win on the road.
“We know lots of guys can play and lots of guys played for each other, too. There’s still things we can do to get better, but we have a group of guys that care and certainly play hard.”
It was the first time in B.C. for some of the Tigers and the longest road trip for others. It was a new experience for 19-year-old Dayton Reschny, in his first WHL season after playing in the AJHL last year. He says the trip wore on the body but he liked the resilience they showed as a group.
“The experience we have, obviously the winning culture is still here,” Reschny said. “So just when we get down early in the game, or you’re getting outplayed, we just kind of stick to what we know, we do best with our game plan, and just continue to stick to the process and grind it out. And t eventually goes our way for us.”
As much as the Tigers battled their six opponents, they battled health and the flu bug as well. They were without defenceman Jonas Woo for the entire trip, already missing overage blue liner Josh Van Mulligen, and forward Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll missed the final two games with injury.
The flu kept players out of games throughout the trip while others played through it to keep a full lineup. They did play shorthanded in their first win, beating Prince George 6-3. Desjardins didn’t disclose how hard the flu hit all the players but says captain Bryce Pickford, who missed two games with illness, led the way throughout the sickness.
“Lots of guys have stepped up, we had guys out and Pickford, he probably shouldn’t have played (Monday),” Desjardins said. “He was throwing up, he was throwing up on the bench and still playing. So it was a pretty, pretty gutsy effort by him.”
Every coach thinks their team cares and wants to play hard. Until they see it, Desjardins says you don’t know what you have from a team. Returning from B.C., after some sick efforts, he liked what he saw.
“You honestly don’t know what you’re going to have, dropping the first two games, and we could have won the first two, just as we could have lost some of the last four as well,” Desjardins said. “But the guys the whole trip they battled for each other.”
A tracking trend throughout the trip was the penalty discrepancy. The Tigers were sent to the box 22 times, getting just 15 power plays the other way. Take away their six power plays in the trip-opening 5-4 loss to Victoria, they had just nine man advantages.
It was a trend that was felt by the team.
“We’re one of the top three teams in the league in O-zone time, so you’d think that we would draw a few more penalties but that’s doesn’t seem to be happening,” Desjardins said. “But we have to be smarter as well, taking a penalty at the end of the game (Monday), you can’t possibly do that. We told the guys on the bench before they went out, make sure that you don’t take a penalty, whatever you do and we go out and take one.
“So that’s something that’s just not acceptable. I don’t know what to do with it, but it’s not acceptable. If we keep doing it, I guess guys can’t play.”
The Tigers used Wednesday as an optional skate day before having today and Friday to ramp back up for the weekend ahead. They’ll head to Edmonton on Saturday for a rare 2 p.m. game against the Oil Kings before hosting the Tri-City Americans on Sunday for a 4 p.m. contest.
“We’re used to being on the road and on a bus, so I think we’ll be ready for the Edmonton game,” defenceman Riley Steen said. “We know they’re a good team but we know we’re better, we know our structure and we know what makes us good.
“But we can’t wait to play at home, so that’ll be a good game.”
