Reinvigorated Medicine Hat Tigers, armed with new talent, take on Raiders at home

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The Medicine Hat Tigers will look to get back into top in the Eastern Conference, sitting two points back of Saskatoon after the Blades defeated the Red Deer Rebels in overtime 3-2 Tuesday night.

Molendyk and Volotovskii were not yet practicing with the Tigers on Tuesday.

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Gavin McKenna was back, after representing Canada at the IIHF World Junior Championships alongside Molendyk, and is excited to now continue to have him as a teammate.

“He was special to play with. Pumped to have him here. All the boys are super excited,” McKenna said.

“He’s a great guy. Talked to him quite a bit while I was there. So he’s excited. We’re all excited. We can’t wait to get started with him,” he added.

“He’s one of the best skaters in the league, can change the game, can play 30 minutes a night if he has to, controls the game. He’s so smart with the puck.

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READ: Gavin McKenna, star Medicine Hat Tigers forward, makes Canada’s World Junior squad

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McKenna said the World Juniors experience was not the way he wanted it to go, but lots of fun.

“Learned lots, so it was good to meet some new buddies, and good to be back though,” McKenna said.

“It was such a tight group. We bonded really early on. There was no clicks or anything. Everyone did everything together. It was pretty upsetting to kind of lose that game for that group,” he added.

“I’d love to be back with that group and have one more shot at it, but sadly, that’s not the case. I’ll talk to lots of those guys for the rest of my life.”

A big take away from the experience for McKenna was how important discipline is.

“We lost because of penalties, I think if I can implement that into the boys, not taking penalties. Moose Jaw won the league last year as the least penalized team in the league,” McKenna said

“If we can be that, I think we have a really good shot at winning because we’re one of the best teams five on five.”

The Tigers will welcome goaltender Harrison Meneghin back into the lineup Wednesday night as the backup to Jordan Switzer.

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READ: Medicine Hat Tigers bring back goaltender Zahara through trade

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Goaltender Zach Zahara, who appeared in one contest with the Tigers since returning in a December trade is no longer with the team after joining the BCHL‘s Brooks Bandits.

Tigers forward Andrew Basha is expected to be out longer term, while forward Cayden Lindstrom‘s return will depend on his rehab, but a return this season hasn’t been ruled out as of yet.

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READ: Tigers’ Cayden Lindstrom expected to return after minor back surgery

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Tigers forwards Shaeffer Gordon-Carroll and Carter Cunningham could be back in the lineup as early as next week.

Tigers Head Coach and General Manager Willie Desjardins won’t know until the conclusion of the WHL trade deadline on Thursday if he is done making moves.

Desjardins is happy to get Molendyk on the team and feels he can do a little bit of everything.

“Certainly a great skating defenceman, obviously world junior class, named top three on Canada’s team,” Desjardins said.

“Obviously he’s really elite, that was the guy we wanted, to try to bring in the best and that’s who we felt was the best,” he added.

“He’s a type of player that can play with anybody and he’s going to be a great part of our team for sure and we’re excited.”

Desjardins said that Volotovskii is a big part of the deal as well.

“I’ve tried to acquire him like three times now. He’s not going to put up huge points but really good on face-off, good penalty killer,” Desjardins said.

“They always used him against Weisblatt’s line to shut it down. He’s a guy that will fill in for us, give us some depth in our lineup and he’ll be a key guy as well for us,” he added.

“Both pieces are really important.”

Tigers captain Oasiz Wiesblatt is a former teammate of Volotovskii, and said it’s going to be good to have him as a Tiger.

“It’s awesome. He’s a great dude,” Wiesblatt said.

“Obviously played with him in Bantam there, and thought he was a great player.”

Wiesblatt is also excited about the National Hockey League debut of his older brother Ozzy Wiesblatt with the Nashville Predators this past Friday.

“Just a really cool moment. Super proud of him. He completely deserves it,” Wiesblatt said.

“All he’s got to do is just work hard and just stick there. And if not, just kind of stick with it and never give up. I think that’s a huge value with our family.”

Ozzy is a former member of the Prince Albert Raiders the Tigers opponent on Wednesday.

“I always love playing against PA, especially at their home barn. I kind of watched them when I was younger and when Ozzie kind of went on a run with PA. I love playing PA,” Wiesblatt said.

“It’s going to be a good matchup. It’s going to be a hard game, and we’re all excited.”

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READ: U.S. beats Finland 4-3 in OT to capture world junior gold, Medicine Hat Tigers’ Vaisanen gets silver

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Tigers defenseman Veeti Vaisanen who earned a silver medal at the world juniors wasn’t at practice Tuesday, but is also expected back for the game on Wednesday.

McKenna, disappointed how his tournament finished was happy for his Tigers teammate.

“I was cheering him on in the final game there, sadly, but it was good for him,” McKenna said.

The two former Tigers players who were sent to the Blades in the deal Monday night, defenseman Jack Kachkowski and forward Hayden Harsanyi will be missed by the team.

“I think both those guys did a great job and really bought into what we wanted to do here. I think for Hayden, me kind of seeing him kind of grow as a player in Calgary and coming down here,” Wiesblatt said

“Just really proud of him, how he’s become as a person and a player, and especially how he came out of his surgery. He’s ready to go, he’s a great player,” he added.

“Jack came in here from the AJHL. And I thought he did a great job kind of stepping up. He’s a really skilled D-man and yeah I think they’re going to do great in Saskatoon.”

Desjardins said it’s hard, people forget you build a team to win and you can’t win unless you have older players.

“That’s the only way you’re going to have a chance. But as soon as you do that, then the younger players don’t get the opportunity. They want to play top six minutes as a forward, top four as a D-man and you can’t do that when you have an older lineup,” Desjardins said.

“They just don’t get those minutes and as a result they’re not happy and it has nothing to do with being here. It’s just that they want to play more and when you start to go for it, when you start to try to put a really good program together, usually it’s older players,” he added.

“We’ve been fortunate that the Rucks and Gordon-Carroll have been able to manage it.”

Desjardins said that bringing in Molendyk would have left Kachkowski as a seventh defenseman.

“He’s not going to be happy with seven, just won’t be. It makes it really difficult but the thing for us is we always try to do what we think for now and for the future for our fans,” Desjardins said.

“Let’s get a good product and then now we have to work at making sure we find guys for down the road too but both those young guys are good players, like really good players. They’re going to be really good but we didn’t want to sacrifice this year for that.”

McKenna said it sucks to see those guy go.

“You know, that’s always the worst part of the game,” McKenna said.

“But they’ll get lots of opportunity in Saskatoon. So pumped for them”

McKenna is looking forward to the rest of the season with the Tigers.

“The boys played unbelievable while I was gone. To kind of build off that and keep it rolling into playoffs, we’ve got the group to do it, so our only goal is to win,” McKenna said.

Game time Wednesday at Co-op Place is at 7 p.m.

Will Bryant and Lance Doll will have the pre-game on Wild 94-5 starting at 6:30 p.m.

by Jesse Gill

Reinvigorated Medicine Hat Tigers, armed with new talent, take on Raiders at home

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