NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
Medicine Hat Tigers captain Bryce Pickford celebrates scoring a first period goal in an 8-3 win Feb. 28 at Co-op Place over the Calgary Hitmen.
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Bryce Pickford has been having a blast since his return from injury.
The Medicine Hat Tigers captain hasn’t lost a stride since missing 12 games due to an upper-body injury, running a seven-game point streak entering play Friday. Pickford has eight goals in his return, three coming in a 6-3 win over the Brandon Wheat Kings on Wednesday.
What he’s enjoyed most in being back, beyond finding the back of the net a bunch, has been being around his teammates once again.
“It’s been awesome being back with the group, that’s the best part for me, I’m really close to these guys,” Pickford said. “Being away for the long period of time was hard on me, but to just be back playing with my brothers, it’s awesome.”
While the Montreal Canadiens prospect is motivated by wins, as most athletes are, Pickford also tries to ensure he enjoys the moment when he can. On Wednesday, his voice rang loud across the Victory+ stream after he potted his hat-trick goal.
“Trying to have fun with it is a big thing, too, because the season gets really long and guys get down sometimes,” Pickford said. “So just having fun makes the year a little bit more enjoyable for a lot of the guys.”
The Tigers returned from a two-game road trip with a pair of wins, kicking things off with an 11-2 win Tuesday in Regina over the Pats, running an eight-game win streak. Pickford liked how the Tigers were able to rise on the road and have success.
“That was a far trip, so just getting the legs moving and we made them a day trip to Regina, so I thought the team played really well,” Pickford said. “Our start was good, Brandon is also a really good team, too. They can create lots of offence, but we were just able to do more than them. We just played a team game.”
The Tigers enter the two-game weekend, Friday against Red Deer and Saturday in Edmonton against the Oil Kings, tied for first in the Eastern Conference with the Prince Albert Raiders. Prince Albert holds a game and a win in hand on the Tigers, putting them in the position of having to fully past them with the WHL’s first tiebreaker being wins.
The two division leaders, Medicine Hat and Prince Albert, don’t play again this regular season, which means the Tigers will need their own success and some help around the league.
As they look to make that push, Pickford says they’ll have to take it a game at a time. If it was up to him, he’d want to face the Raiders for the conference.
“Prince Albert is a really good team, they’re not going to make many mistakes, so we have to be ready for a chance and when it comes, we’re going to pounce on it,” Pickford said.
“I’d rather play them, I think those games would be a lot of fun. I like a challenge and they’re a really good team.”
Looking down the home stretch to the postseason, Pickford says they have to be playing at a playoff level before they can get to Game 1.
“I don’t think you play playoff hockey in the first game of playoffs, you have to start early,” Pickford said. “So we’ve been good but we need to fix a fix a couple things.”
Pickford’s hat trick Wednesday, his third of the season, pushed him over the 40-goal mark as he enters play Friday at home against the Red Deer Rebels with 41 goals and 76 points in 49 games. He is one goal off the top CHL defenceman goal mark since 2000 and is nine back of Saskatoon Blades defenceman Lawrence Sacharuk for the single season, CHL record for goals by a defenceman with 50.
He’s still looking at that record as reachable, with seven games left on the calendar. While he tries to achieve that, he’s also looking to the postseason for his game to be peak.
“I play my best hockey in playoffs, so I think I’m gonna hit another level here soon,” Pickford said.
As for what that next level looks like for him,
“Probably some more goals.”
