The Medicine Hat midget AAA Tigers’ push towards the post-season will come down to their final regular season game.
After a weekend split at home, the Alberta Midget Hockey League team will travel to Calgary to take on the Royals this coming Saturday.
The Tigers downed the Edmonton United Cycle Maple Leafs 4-1 Saturday at the Kinplex, then fell 3-2 to the UFA Bisons on Sunday. A win over the Royals would earn Medicine Hat its first AMHL playoff berth since 2006.
“It is not going to come easy,” said Tigers coach Chad Martin. “I wouldn’t expect it to come easy.
“We are going to have to go take it from people. Nobody is going to roll over for us. Nobody is definitely going to step aside for us.”
The top six teams from the Chrysler Division of the AMHL qualify for the playoffs. The Calgary Flames, Tigers, Bisons and Royals are battling for the fourth, fifth and sixth place spots.
Currently, the Flames and Bisons hold down the fourth and fifth place spots at 14-13-6 for 34 points. The Tigers are sixth at 14-16-6 for 32 points. The Royals have the same amount of points as the Tigers at 12-13-8, but the Tigers have the tiebreaker in the standings as they have more wins.
The Flames, Bisons and Royals all have a game in hand on the Tigers.
The Bisons conclude their season with road games in Fort Saskatchewan and Sherwood Park. The Royals will host the Flames on Friday before closing with the Tigers on Saturday. The Flames close their season hosting Leduc.
Unless the Royals lose on Friday — giving the Tigers a chance to win or tie for the playoff berth — Saturday’s game is a must-win.
“Right now, our guys want to set the bar,” said Martin. “That is where we are going to take it.”
Against the Maple Leafs on Saturday at the Kinplex, the Tigers held a 2-0 lead entering the third, but Hayden Callaway scored at the 5:35 mark of the third for the Leafs to cut the gap to 2-1.
Tigers captain Houston Hazelaar sealed the win tallying a key insurance goal with 5:51 to play and an empty-net goal with 19.4 seconds remaining. David Haaf and Kyle Funk had the other goals for the Tigers.
Jesse Wilkins made 30 saves to earn the win in goal for the hosts, while Ty Swabb stopped 25 of 28 shots suffering the loss for the Leafs.
In Sunday’s loss to the Bisons, Hazelaar and Curtis Valk each had singles. Chase Komistek made 26 saves in goal.
While Saturday’s win wasn’t the Tigers’ best effort, Haaf liked a couple of things he saw out of his club.
“We forechecked really hard, and we played well as a team,” said Haaf, who had two assists to go a long with his goal. “We need to get lots of pucks on net, and that usually works well for us.”
Now if the Tigers can get one more solid effort, they make their long awaited return to the post-season dance.