Taking the lead
Tigers not shying away from physical play
Medicine Hat Tigers forward Zach Fischer celebrates scoring the opening goal in Game 2 of the WHL’s Eastern Conference quarter-final series against the Brandon Wheat Kings, Saturday at the Canalta Centre. The Tigers won 5-3 to take a 2-0 series lead.
There’s been no love lost between the Medicine Hat Tigers and Brandon Wheat Kings through the first two games of the WHL’s Eastern Conference quarter-finals.
Medicine Hat may be a much smaller squad, far less reliant on finding success through physical play, but after collecting a 2-0 series lead in a pair of chippy contests at the Canalta Centre, enforcer Zach Fischer says the Tigers feel they’re winning the grind game too.
“They’re getting frustrated and that’s what we want. We want to get on them early, we want to frustrate their top players so they turn on each other and start bickering,” said Fischer. “I think the physicality is going to keep getting higher and higher and it’s going to get more chippy. We expect that. They don’t like to lose, they’re the defending champions.”
Game 2’s bruising tone was set just seconds off the opening draw when Wheaties forward Tyler Coulter took an inadvertent stick in the face from Chad Butcher after trying to deliver a hit on the Tigers overager.
“He kind of took a run at me, I tried to get out of the way and my stick clipped him a little bit,” said Butcher. “It was a harmless play, I didn’t intend on hurting anybody.”
But intent didn’t seem to matter. No call was made on the play, and a war of words erupted on the bench before eventually making its way onto the ice. Nearly no check was left unfinished in the opening frame — which concluded with a goal from Fischer with 11 seconds left on the clock — and the gritty pace only intensified after the break.
Fischer dropped the gloves with Brandon’s Kade Jensen after taking a run at Reid Duke, Clayton Kirichenko brought the crowd of 3,791 to its feet with an old school hip check — also on Duke — and Mason Shaw burrowed under Brandon’s skin with his pesky style of play, highlighted by an exchange of slashes with Coulter to close out the second. Even players like Max Gerlach and Tyler Preziuso were laying the body on much larger opponents.
“There are guys who are my size, Shaw’s size, guys who are small who are laying guys out. We’re standing our own ground,” said Gerlach. “When we see a guy like Fischer go out and pump a guy like that and take someone to the box it makes us all feel good. And we want to repay him, because we can’t have him just doing that all playoffs. If you want to go far it’s got to come from everybody.”
They key to all this however, as Butcher points out, is that the Tigers have been maintaining their composure throughout while never giving up a lead.
“You can tell some of them were getting a bit frustrated and a little bit undisciplined,” said Butcher. “In seeing that we just needed to stick to our game plan, be smart and be aware out there.”
Brandon forward Connor Gutenberg admits the Wheat Kings haven’t been doing themselves any favours by giving into frustrations and ending up shorthanded, as Medicine Hat’s potent power play has struck five times on 14 chances through the first two games.
“We have to play better defensively and stay disciplined ... They have a good power play, but I think five-on-five we’re fine,” said Gutenberg. “It’s the playoffs so everything is more intense.”
Wheat Kings head coach David Anning added Brandon is at its best when they’re “playing heavy, playing big and finishing checks,” but its something he’d like to see done more consistently when the series shifts to Dauphin on Tuesday.
“Both teams are engaged physically,” said Anning. “I think things are happening fast and both sides are trying to finish checks. I think we can be a little more competitive and a little more consistent in that.”
While it hasn’t been Medicine Hat’s bread and butter, head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston says the Tigers have been doing a good job of walking the line between playing with fire and penalty killing.
“For the players to be at their best they’ve got to turn the page quickly. There are things that happen — whether it’s a call they thought should have went one way or a missed call or a hard hit — this is a challenging, physical and emotional sport,” said Clouston. “I think you have to play with emotion, you have to play with passion and walk that fine line, and for the most part we did a good job with that.”
The Tigers and Wheat Kings meet up for Game 3 Tuesday night in Dauphin, Man. The puck drops at 6:30 p.m.