(Image Credit: Randy Feere / Medicine Hat Tigers)

By Will Bryant

Sports

Medicine Hat Tigers begin title defense against Regina Pats

Mar 27, 2026 | 3:02 PM

31 years ago, the Kamloops Blazers repeated as Western Hockey League champions.

Since then, 27 teams have tried and failed to defend their championship.

The Medicine Hat Tigers hope to buck that trend as they begin their title defense tonight against the Regina Pats.

The Tigers concluded a historic regular-season last Saturday night with an 8-3 win over the Red Deer Rebels to secure the franchise’s fifth 50-win season in their illustrious 56-year history.

Led by the top two scorers in the Canadian Hockey League in draft-eligible forwards, Liam and Markus Ruck, the Tigers have no shortage of offense.

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The offense carries over onto the blue line, where Tigers captain Bryce Pickford will look to continue his near-unprecedented regular season into the playoffs.

Pickford netted 45 goals this season, the most by a defenseman in more than 30 years, and came just five goals shy of the CHL single-season record.

The third-round pick of the Montreal Canadiens scored 13 goals in 18 playoff games last year on the Tigers run to the title, and the captain will look to pick up right where he left off.

Pickfords defense partner, Jonas Woo, led all CHL defenseman in points this season with 86 and boasts a whopping 58 games of playoff experience, nearly more than the entire Regina Pats roster combined.

Meanwhile, the Regina Pats return to the playoffs for the first time since 2023.

Regina snuck their way into the playoffs after both Moose Jaw and Red Deer lost their final games of the regular season to secure the Pats a postseason berth.

The Pats have a combined 64 games of playoff experience, but 49 of those come from two of their 20-year-olds in Ephramm McNutt and Caden Brown.

Outside of those two, the playoffs are a new beast for most of this young upstart Pats roster that will aim to surprise many around the WHL and push the defending champs to the brink.

Medicine Hat swept the regular season set 4-0-0-0 against Regina and only trailed for 4:27 over the four-game set.

Game 1 of Round 1 gets underway tonight inside Co-op Place at 7:00 p.m. MST.

The pre-game show begins at 6:30 p.m. on WILD 94.5 FM.