Milestone in site for Tigers captain as Medicine Hat travels east for a pair of games

He says the milestone wasn’t something he necessarily would have expect to reach when he first started in the league.

But after seeing other WHL players hit the mark, he felt it could be within reach.

“I remember seeing [Kyle] Crankovic. He had a lot of points when he was younger and seeing how much points he had. That’s when I kind of noticed, oh, it could probably happen,” Wiesblatt said.

“Two hundred points would be a cool milestone and super exciting.”

Tigers forward Gavin McKenna is proud of what the team captain has been able to accomplish, and looks forward to seeing Wiesblatt reach 200 points.

“He’s such a great person and such a great player,” McKenna said.

“He does everything for this team. He’s been here for so long. He’s gone through all the ups and downs,” he added.

“To have him kind of accomplish that, it’s a big accomplishment for him. He’s put in so many hours here, and he deserves it for sure.”

The Western Hockey League’s first player of the month this season, McKenna is closing in on some impressive career totals himself.

Sitting five goals away from 50 and 12 points away from 150 on his career heading into the weekend.

Tigers rookie forward Carter Cunningham was able to experienced first hand how skilled of a player McKenna is, after scoring his first WHL goal off a nice pass from him against Calgary.

“He creates so much time and space for himself to be able to make plays,” Cunningham said.

“Anyone watching him just knows he’s a special player. To be on the ice on the same team as him is just, it’s surreal. Honestly, it’s awesome. It’s a good experience.”

McKenna sits at the top of the WHL points race with 23 points through 14 games this season.

The first time he’s lead the league in scoring in his young career.

McKenna said the environment he’s been playing in as a Tigers has helped him produce offense.

“It’s been good to come into this culture and get to play with all these high-end guys. They’ve all helped me a lot,” McKenna said.

“The more success that we have, the more success I have. So, it’s been good, and I think our team is going to go on a roll here. So, hopefully that can help me out a bit.”

Friday’s game at the Brandt Centre in Regina against the Pats begins at 7 p.m.

Will Bryant will have the radio broadcast on Wild 94.5 starting at 6:45 p.m.

A trip east down the number one highway will have them in Brandon on Saturday taking on the Wheat Kings at 6 p.m. with the radio broadcast underway at 5:45 p.m.

As the Tigers look to track down top spot in the Central Division, just one point back of the Lethbridge Hurricanes.

by Jesse Gill

Milestone in site for Tigers captain as Medicine Hat travels east for a pair of games

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