Medicine Hat Tigers sit one win away from junior hockey immortality

With three 20-year-old defenseman, Rhett Parsons, Dru Krebs, and Bogdans Hodass, who had aged out, Tigers Head Coach and General Manager Willie Desjardins knew he needed to address his blue line.

During the 2024 WHL prospects draft, Desjardins acquired Bryce Pickford and Jonas Woo to bolster the Tigers’ backend.

“Getting Woo and Pickford – that was huge for us,” said Desjardins

“That kind of filled a big void that we needed.”

Desjardins wasn’t done, adding Mathew Ward and Ryder Ritchie up front

“Ward was always a thorn in our side, playing him in Swift. He was always a guy that gave us problems.”

“Ritchie was such a good offensive guy. Honestly, I picked him up because he had such a good playoffs last year.”

Entering the season as the top-ranked team in the CHL, the Tigers had a target on their back.

They opened the year strong, with a 4-2 victory to kick off the season against the Edmonton Oil Kings, but then faced three games in a row against the team that knocked them out in the first round of the 2024 playoffs, the Red Deer Rebels.

An opportunity for redemption was on the minds of the Tigers, but instead, it was more of the same.

The Tigers lost all three games to the Rebels and followed it up with a 6-3 defeat to the reigning WHL champion Moose Jaw Warriors.

A 1-0 start quickly turned to 1-4, and the top-ranked team in the CHL entering the season was nowhere to be found on the rankings.

Something needed to change, and it did, fast.

Tigers Head Coach and General Manager Willie Desjardins began to wheel and deal, bringing in 20-year-old netminder Harrison Meneghin from the division rival Lethbridge Hurricanes, while sending long-time Tigers Shane Smith and Brayden Boehm out of the Hat.

“If we’re gonna try to do something, we gotta have goaltending and I’m not quite sure of ours, so I had to make that move,” said the Tigers’ bench boss.

It was the first of many mid-season trades the Tigers would go on to make.

After the 1-4 start and acquisition of Harriosn Meneghin, the Tigers would win three straight to get back to .500, but then became riddled by injury.

“We didn’t start good. We weren’t a team. We were a group of individuals that just thought we were going to win, didn’t think we had to work hard.”

Already without 19-year-old defenseman Josh Van Mulligen, the Tigers also lost Ryder Ritchie, Hayden Harsanyi, Mathew Ward, and Niilopekka Muhonen for an extended period of time.

Their depth was being tested.

That first test would come in the form of the Prince George Cougars.

The Cougars thumped the Tigers, handing them an 8-1 defeat, their worst of the season.

“Honestly, that was the best thing that ever happened to us.”

“We had to grow, we had to grow as a group,” added Desjardins.

That loss seemed to spark something in the team, who went on to win five of their next six to steady the ship.

As the calendar flipped to November, the Tigers were beginning to gel and discover their identity of a fast and physical club that could score at will.

The injury situation began to resolve itself, all excpet Hayden Harsanyi had returned from injury by early November, and now the Tigers had access to their full roster.

Just as things began to be trending up, Harrison Meneghin got injured in mid-November and wound up being sidelined for nearly two months.

That created an opportunity for rookie netminder Jordan Switzer to earn his keep in the WHL.

The rookie and native of Edmonton, AB, certainly did that.

“When you lose Meneghin, you know you’re in trouble.”

Over the 7 weeks that Meneghin was out, the Tigers went 11-5-2 while playing some of their best hockey of the season.

“Switzer was unbelievable when he came in. He exceeded all expectations. If he doesn’t play great, we’re in big trouble.”

It was no coincidence that this came with their starter out, and the adversity had brought the team closer.

The team knew they couldn’t continue to play the way they’d been playing with Meneghin out, if they still wanted to contend for the division and conference.

With no way to know it at the time, this was a sign of what was to come after the Christmas break.

Beginning the second half of the WHL season still without Harrison Meneghin, and absent Gavin McKenna and Veeti Vaisanen, who were away competing at the World Junior Hockey Championships in Ottawa, there was no reason to expect a blazing start to the second half for the Tigers.

But that is exactly what happened.

The Tigers opened with a 4-0 shutout victory over the Lethbridge Hurricanes, the first of Jordan Switzer’s young WHL career, but the win came at a price.

In the dying minutes of the game, star forward Andrew Basha would limp off the ice with an injury that would likely end his season, a vital blow to a Tiger team that had been bitten by the injury bug all season.

“We won lots of games that I didn’t think we’d win. There were situations where I didn’t think we’d be able to find a way, and the guys did. It was incredible.”

Medicine Hat would win two of their next four before McKenna and Vaisanen returned from Ottawa, but they didn’t return alone.

Long-time Saskatoon Blades Tanner Molendyk and Misha Volotovskii were with them, acquired in a blockbuster deal ahead of the WHL Trade deadline.

The trade was a sign of belief from Willie Desjardins that this Tiger team had what it takes to become WHL champions.

It’s safe to say he was right.

Holding a record of 21-15-2-0 prior to the trade, the Medicine Hat Tigers would finish the regular season a staggering 26-2-1-1, en route to a conference and division title.

Despite the gaudy record, their path was not as smooth as it appeared, and it was hard on Desjardins.

“We were 21-15 and I thought we’d be 30-6. That’s a big difference, and I felt totally responsible.”

“I wanted to win for our fans, I wanted to win for our organization and we weren’t winning and I felt it was all my fault that that wasn’t happening,” quipped Desjardins.

Following the Molendyk and Volotovskii acquisitions, the Tigers would run off a season-high 12-straight wins, before it came to an abrupt halt to conclude their U.S. division road trip, where they lost 4-3 in a shootout to the Seattle Thunderbirds.

More importantly, in that game, they lost defenseman Bryce Pickford for seven weeks due to injury.

Two weeks after the Pickford injury, his blue-line partner Jonas Woo would be sidelined with a similar injury as the Tigers were out two of their top defenseman heading into the home-stretch of the regular season, with the conference and division still in limbo.

Accustomed to these types of setbacks, the Tigers’ depth was unfazed.

Long-time forward Marcus Pacheco slid back to defense, where he shined, earning the nickname ‘Marcus Makar’ inside the Tiger locker room.

Pacheco picked up a career-high five-game point streak and personified the selflessness that had made this team so successful since the Christmas break.

Despite the injuries to Basha, Pickford, and Woo the Tigers continued to find ways to win.

“They just didn’t lose, they just kept finding ways.”

“Either the powerplay did it for us, or the penalty kill was unbelievable and shut teams down like it was just different groups – our great goaltending or our D (defense),” mentioned Desjardins.

With ten games left in the regular season, the Tigers controlled their own destiny.

If they won out, they would win the division and conference and claim the top seed in the Eastern Conference entering the 2025 WHL Playoffs.

“It was just one game at a time. Nobody looked and said we had to win ten. We knew we had to win, we didn’t know how many, but it was like okay, tonight we gotta go out and try to win.”

That, of course, is easier said than done.

Two games in, the Tigers had handled business so far, but would face even more adversity, losing superstar forward Gavin McKenna for three games due to suspension.

Despite being without McKenna, the Tigers would win the following three games by a combined score of 12-2, with two of the wins being shutouts.

The ‘Cats would go on to win their next four, setting up a game for the division and conference title in Calgary to conclude the regular season.

“That’s incredible, we made that run with that group, because we had big pieces out of our lineup.”

The Tigers would go on to handle business, with a strong 5-2 win.

The win was highlighted by the stellar play of Harrison Meneghin, who made 35 saves in the statement win.

Meneghin and the Tigers would celebrate on the ice, but as they stepped down the tunnel, the celebration turned to sorrow.

Post-game, the Tigers and Meneghin were informed of the passing of Harrison’s father.

A devastating blow to Harrison and, in turn, the entire Tiger organization.

The circumstance was something Desjardins had never experienced before in his coaching career.

“I’ve never handled anything like that.”

“There’s no right way to handle any of that stuff.”

What should have been a celebratory bus ride back to Medicine Hat was eerily silent, as the Tigers, a self-described family, mourned for one of their own.

The tragedy would turn into a rallying point for the team and city, beginning the playoffs, with the adage “Do it for Harry” being uttered by all who donned the orange and black.

In a remarkable display of resiliency and courage, Meneghin made it back to Medicine Hat for the opening game of the playoffs against the Swift Current Broncos.

“I asked him if he thought he was ready, he said he thought he was ready.”

The nearly 5500 in attendance inside Co-op Place for Game 1 were treated to one of the most powerful moments in Medicine Hat Tigers history.

Putting aside the pop that came from the crowd when Meneghin was introduced in the starting lineup, the result was even more powerful.

Meneghin turned aside all 21 shots he faced, recording his first career playoff win, and shutout just five days removed from the passing of his father, Derek, a moment that tugged at the heartstrings of the entire hockey world.

“For him to come in and get a shutout was pretty amazing and pretty special for our whole group,” said Desjardins.

Despite the ongoing mourning process, there was still hockey to be played, and the Tigers continued to put their best foot forward.

They would suffer an early setback, dropping Game 3 of the opening round to Swift Current, setting up a pivotal Game 4, with a chance to take a 3-1 series lead back to Medicine Hat.

Game 4 would head to overtime with the series hanging in the balance.

Hunter St. Martin would silence the Swift Current faithful, rifling home the overtime winner early into overtime, securing the Tigers a 3-1 stranglehold lead in the series.

The Tigers would go on to wrap that series up in five, before they swept the Prince Albert Raiders in the second round, setting up an Eastern Conference Finals matchup with their Highway 3 rival, the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

The Tigers dominated the opening two games of the series, winning by a combined score of 12-4.

Game 3 in Lethbridge would be much different.

The Tigers found themselves trailing 3-0 through a period, and 4-1 nearly halfway through the game.

Despite that, the Tigers would rally to force overtime, where their captain Oasiz Wiesblatt would win it for the Tigers, securing a 3-0 series lead.

“We have enough offence that we know if we get a chance, we can score, and we just happened to capitalize.”

The Tigers would grit through Game 4, emerging with a 5-3 win, securing their spot in the WHL Finals for the first time since 2007.

Medicine Hat would win the opening game of the finals 4-1, but fell 6-2 in Game 2 as the series shifted back to Spokane.

“People don’t realize after Game 2 we were down. We didn’t have a good Game 2. We thought we were going to have a good Game 2, we didn’t play great, we were kind of second-guessing things a bit.”

But as the Tigers headed out of Co-op Place to Spokane, they were greeted by thousands of Medicine Hat fans who lined the streets to see the team off.

The community support had a massive impact on the morale of the team.

“All of a sudden, they got all the people to send us off, everyone is so excited. It made us go ‘Hey!’, we owe it to our community to play the best we can.”

In Game 3, the Tigers did just that, shutting out the Chiefs 6-0 to retake the series lead.

“That was an amazing win.”

“We were missing guys and we were beat up, so for us to come up with a win there, it really set them on their heels.”

Game 4 was a tighter affair but Spokane got into penalty trouble that allowed an opportunistic Tigers team to capitalize.

“They take a major, and we capitalize to go 3/4 on the powerplay and we win that one, then it’s one game left and we gotta win it”

The Tigers would win that final game, securing their first WHL championship since 2007.

Now one win away from claiming a Memorial Cup title for the first time since 1988, Desjdarinds says that win or lose, he’s proud of what the group has achieved.

“I’m proud of the group because they fight for each other.”

The Tigers have one final game to fight for one another, and it is for the most prestigious trophy in all of Canadian junior hockey.

Puck drop for the Memorial Cup final is set for 5 p.m. MST and you can catch the pre-game show, along with my entire chat with Tigers Head Coach and General Manager Willie Desjardins, beginning at 4:45 p.m. on Wild 94.5 FM.

by Will Bryant

Medicine Hat Tigers sit one win away from junior hockey immortality

Our Community