‘More than ready’: Medicine Hat Tigers say they are ready to take on the Red Deer Rebels in playoffs

The Tigers held the edge in the regular season with four wins against two loses, two of the Tigers wins coming in overtime.

That doesn’t matter now as the playoffs are a whole new season.

Star forward Gavin McKenna lead the Tigers in points this regular season with 97, breaking Al Conroy’s 41-year-old Tigers record for a 16-year-old.

“Going into this year, I didn’t know what to expect and, you know, it’s super cool feeling for sure,” McKenna said.

“For me and my family, it’s something, you know, obviously remember forever.”

On Tuesday, Central Division All-Star honours where handed out, McKenna was named to the first team, teammates Andrew Basha and Oasiz Wiesblatt earned second team spots.

McKenna feels he’s ready for this years playoffs after the four games of experience last year, and a full regular season under his belt.

“Going into the playoffs last year, we didn’t really have too high expectations going up against such a good team,” McKenna said.

“Now that I think we’ve got that experience, you know, we’ve had so many guys returning and got that experience,” he added.

“I think we’re expecting to make a run for it here and we’ve been playing playoff style hockey for the past 67 games, so I think we’re more than ready.”

McKenna feels it will be a hard fought series.

“They’re a speedy team and they work really hard. I think they’re going to try to wear us out with their size,” McKenna said.

“I think we can, you know, kind of take that out of their own books and do the same to them.”

Captain Tyler MacKenzie will be taking on the team he grew up cheering for, hailing from Red Deer.

He’s expecting to have support at both rinks.

“Yeah, it’s pretty cool. I mean obviously it’s always special to go play in your hometown,” MacKenzie said.

“You know in a playoff series, there’s definitely a little more ante on the line for that one. It’s going to be awesome. I have lots of family and friends there,” he added.

“But still just focus on my game. You know it’s going to be a super exciting time. Not all the time, you get to play a playoff series in your hometown, but I’m looking forward to it. It’s going to be super fun.”

With four regular Tigers forwards out the last game of the regular season, head coach Willie Desjardins said Vasil Spilka, Cayden Lindstrom, Shane Smith and Marcus Pacheco will be game time decisions.

Forward Brayden Boehm injured since October, is confirmed out for the season.

Desjardins expects the Rebels to be a challenge.

“They’re a good team. They play hard every time we’ve played them, it’s always a hard game,” Desjardins said.

“They’re a different playoff team than they are a regular season team. In the playoffs, they’ll play really hard, you know, they got solid defense, solid throughout the lineup,” he added.

“They are a good group and they’re going to play us hard.”

MacKenzie said the style in the playoffs changes a bit, and those who have played in the post season are passing on that wisdom to those who haven’t.

“The tempo is way higher, everything is just more advanced, it’s way faster,” MacKenzie said.

“Obviously it’s just being their for those guys, we have to make sure we have their back kind of settling them down,” he added.

“We got to make sure our heads are in the right spot, we can’t get too overwhelmed and too excited. We just got to make sure we’re staying even keel.”

McKenzie has enjoyed the energy in the rink leading up to the playoffs.

“There’s obviously a pretty good buzz in our room and kind of just, you know, going around and even in the city itself, I mean, you look at the last few games, the fans turned out to be incredible,” McKenzie said

“For us super excited, you work for this all year, especially coming from two years ago, some of us went through a pretty hard time. That was obviously a tough season. We built last year, we got some experience,” he added.

“We’ve had some time to grow and we’ve had some time to learn and going into this year’s run, we know we’ve got a special group in that room. The guys have worked hard all year. We’ve really built a good trust and bond with this team and we’re just super excited to get into it. “

McKenna feels the Tigers will be ready for the playoffs and the challenge the Rebels will bring.

“We’re just super excited,” McKenna said.

“I think we’ve played pretty well against Red Deer during the regular season, but playoffs is a whole new ball game and I think we’re more than ready.”

Game one starts Friday night at 7 p.m. at Co-op Place.

by Jesse Gill

‘More than ready’: Medicine Hat Tigers say they are ready to take on the Red Deer Rebels in playoffs

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