Medicine Hat Tigers blueliner Dru Krebs shoots during Game 4 of the Tigers' first-round series with the Winnipeg Ice on April 5, 2023. (Photo By Randy Feere/Medicine Hat Tigers)

By Chris Brown

Playoff berth a good first step, Tigers hungry for more

Apr 6, 2023 | 3:06 PM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – The 2022-23 season came to an end for the Medicine Hat Tigers last night, knocked out of the playoffs by the Winnipeg Ice in a four-game sweep.

One day later, head coach and GM Willie Desjardins says his squad can take a lot from the matchup.

“It was a really good team for us to play. Their high-end guys have some really good habits and it’s all about habits in the end,” he said on Thursday. “And you know you always say hard work will beat talent unless talent works hard and that was our game plan. Our game plan was to outwork their high-end guys and it was a good game plan we worked hard. The problem is their high-end guys worked hard too and thats probably what got them through the series.”

Desjardins says playoffs was one of the goals for the team at the start of the year and they won some big games down the stretch to qualify. Outshooting the regular champions during the series was a small victory, says the coach and the Tigers got contributions from some of their own high-end young players.

“One goal was two 16 (year-olds) and a 15 in it. That’s our future and that’s exciting for us,” he says.

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Desjardins says the team took a step forward this year but won’t rest on it.

They’ll keep building toward being a team that can contend for championships.

“Getting in the playoffs was big for that plan its helped us it put us a little bit of a step ahead of where we thought we’d be,” he says. “But it’s been exciting to get that playoff chance and now we gotta take it another step.”

That will start with the prospects, U.S. and European drafts on the horizon and sending the current players home with game plans for the summer.

Desjardins says summer is the most important time as a player to make a difference in their careers. He says some guys don’t use the summer well and then have a disappointing season. Other guys use it well and they take a step and leapfrog guys.

The support of the fans didn’t go unnoticed by Desjardins, particularly as the Tigers chased down a playoff berth.

“Thanks to the fans, our turnout was good towards the end of the year. It’s exciting and you know Medicine Hat’s a great place and we want to do the city proud we want to be good and thanks for coming out and supporting us.”

Awards season

Also on Wednesday, Desjardins was announced as the Central Division nominee for the WHL coach and executive of the year awards.

He says those are both team awards first mentioning the guys on the ice who bought in and fought to make the playoffs and then the off-ice staff.

For a coach you don’t coach by yourself. Joe and Josh and Wonger like all those guys and Jace all those guys make a big difference in there. that’s an award that goes to everybody,” he says.

“The executive award, thats another one that’s theres so many people involved. You know when I’m doing two roles I’m not putting full time in either one so I have to have help on both so you know up top there’s lots of people contributing up top Bobby Fox did a great job with the scouting part so those awards are team awards they’re not individual awards.”

On Thursday, Tigers forward Andrew Basha was named the Central nominee for the Brad Hornung Memorial Award as the most sportsmanlike player. He scored 56 points while getting just 18 penalty minutes.

Cayden Lindstrom was named the Central nominee for the Jim Piggott Memorial as rookie of the year. At 17 years old, Lindstrom scored 19 goals and 23 assists.