Medicine Hat Cubs head into the playoff after splitting weekend games

Obviously, I believe that it definitely will be a changer come playoffs with everybody healthy and everybody in the lineup,” Derzaph said.

“I think the guys played a great game. I’m not disappointed at all in them,” he added.

“Would have we liked to have a couple of them back, 100 per cent. But that’s the way puck luck goes sometimes.”

That streak had continued with a 4-3 win on Friday night over the Carstar Okotoks Bisons.

The game included the Cubs’ debut of local affiliated players Carter Allan and Treyden Kleinkneckt, both members of the Lethbridge Hurricanes U18 AAA team, who took a rookie lap before the game.

Overall, Derzaph was happy with the team’s two-game performance.

“I’m proud the way some of the guys that haven’t been in the lineup quite as much this year come out and move their feet and made things happen,” Derzaph said.

“Really a good weekend going into prepping for playoffs here.”

A potential second-round playoff opponent for the Cubs is the Bisons, who will take on the Coaldale Copperheads in a three-game series starting Wednesday in Coaldale.

The series between the Copperheads and Bisons shifts to Okotoks on Friday night, then, if necessary, back to Coaldale on Saturday.

The Gary Wournell South Division playoff picture has the first-place Cubs finishing the regular season with 24 wins, nine losses, and 3 overtime losses for 51 points.

Derzaph said the first-round bye will give the Cubs time to heal up and prepare.

“There are some bumps and bruises for sure, and we’ve got to heal those guys up and have them ready and give us an opportunity to, you know, maybe a little bit of team building in the next couple of weeks as well and get the guys together as a group and keep battling hard at every practice, and be prepared,” Derzaph said.

“It’s a playoff mentality. Going into it, every game is a game seven, and the guys have to be prepared, mentally prepared and physically prepared to come out and win every shift and every period and every game.”

Overall, Derzaph said he was extremely proud of the guys for a season that included a modern-day team record 14-game winning streak.

“That was a big thing for us. We did struggle a little bit early in the new year here. Maybe some bad habits more than anything, and I think a lot of it was the stress of the guys thinking that they needed to keep this heater going,” Derzaph said.

“So, time to reset and be ready.”

The second-place Agra Risk Wheatlands Kings out of Strathmore had 46 points, and will be in tough in their playoff series with the Cannex Cochrane Generals, who had 44 points to place third.

The Copperheads were fourth with 40 points, and the Bisons finished with 38 points for fifth.

Missing the playoffs in sixth with 12 points on the season were the High River Flyers.

A Flyers team that overage forward Ethan Burgeson joined the Cubs from in January after the Flyers’ playoff chances were done.

Burgeson and three other 21-year-old Cubs were honoured at the start of Sunday’s final regular-season game. Also included were captain Kyle Woolridge, and alternate captains Austin Derzaph and Keynan Cairns.

The hometown Woolridge will finish his regular season Cubs career as the modern-day record holder for games played with 147 across four seasons, two more than last year’s Cubs captain Callen Prosofksy.

The forward also holds the modern-day record for goals with 134.

His 222 points are just 10 shy of the 232 points Kyle Funk put up in four regular seasons with the Cubs from 2010 to 2014.

Woolridge is closing in on some modern-day Cubs playoff records, sitting at 36 points with 24 goals and 12 assists in 25 games.

The current mark for goals and points is held by his former teammate Cooper Hilworth with 43 points and 27 goals in 40 playoff games.

The assist record is currently held by another former teammate, Levi Schlosser, with 18 in 36 playoff contests.

Woolridge was one point shy of top spot in the HJHL points race with 58, but did tie for first in goals with 32, after earning both honours last season.

He tied for top spot in power-play goals with 11.

Another hometown product, Derzaph, finished the season with the second most points by a defenceman in the HJHL with 31 in 36 games.

He joined the team last season after playing two seasons with the Red Lake Miners in the Superior International Junior Hockey League, a Junior A league based in Ontario and Michigan.

Cairns, a defenceman from Shaunavon, Sask., played his fourth season with the Cubs, skating in 123 regular-season games with the club, with 51 points.

His 469 penalty minutes in the regular season place him fourth on the modern-day all-time list.

His 178 penalty minutes this year were tops in the HJHL, but significantly short of the modern-day record of 331 set by Cody Florkowski in 2012-2013.

Burgeson from DeWinton, Alta., had seven points in eight games since joining the Cubs.

In four HJHL regular seasons, which also included time with the Okotoks Bisons and High River Flyers, he had 131 points in 145 games.

The head coach knows his players will be ready to be on top of their games to help extend the junior hockey career of these four guys.

“I think you’ll see that in the playoffs, where, you know what, everybody, it doesn’t matter if you’re first year here or fourth year… they’re going to come hard and play for each other. I’m confident of that, and they’ll be ready,” Derzaph said.

by Jesse Gill

Medicine Hat Cubs head into the playoff after splitting weekend games

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