Future bright for Sillinger with WHL’s Tigers

Medicine Hat still eliminated from playoffs in OT heartbreaker

Cole Sillinger turned heads in the WHL playoffs with the Tigers.

    MEDICINE HAT, Alta. – The month of March has been a whirlwind to say the least for Cole Sillinger.

    The 15-year-old Regina, Sask., product started the month trying to help his hometown Regina Pats Canadians win the Saskatchewan Midget AAA Hockey League championship after topping the circuit with a 33-7-2-2 record in the regular season. 

    In helping the Pats earn a first place finish, Sillinger, who is a skilled forward, led the SMAAAHL in scoring with 31 goals and 45 assists for 76 points in 39 regular season appearances.

    The Pat Canadians were eliminated in a best-of-five SMAAAHL semifinal series dropping a 5-2 decision in a series deciding Game 5 at home on March 20 to the Notre Dame Hounds. The Hounds moved on to with the SMAAAHL title for a second straight year.

Cole Sillinger (#44) drives a shot on goal for the Tigers.

    After the Pat Canadians season game to an end, Sillinger was called up to play for the Medicine Hat Tigers in the WHL playoffs. He joined the Tigers on March 23 helping them earn a 2-1 victory in Game 1 of their best-of-seven first round series with the Edmonton Oil Kings in the Alberta capital.

    On Sunday, the Tigers season came to an end as they dropped a heartbreaking 4-3 decision in overtime before 2,872 spectators at the Canalta Centre to the visiting Oil Kings.

    Edmonton netted the winner at the 2:43 mark of the extra session when captain Trey Fix-Wolansky fed linemate Vince Loschiavo with a perfect pass on a two-on-one break and Loschiavo buried the game and series winner.

    While the ending of Sunday’s contest was obviously tough to take for Sillinger, he was thankful he played in all six of the Tigers post-season games. 

Cole Sillinger scored his first goal with the Tigers in the playoffs.

    He believes he can hit the ground running, when he joins the team next season as a 16-year-old rookie.

    “I can kind of get into a routine,” said Sillinger, who stands 5-foot-11 and weighs 173 pounds. “I can just come in here with lots of confidence and just know that I can play. That will be huge for me.”

    Sillinger comes to the Tigers as a highly touted prospect. The Tigers selected him in the first round and 11^th overall in last year’s WHL Bantam Draft.

    Of course, Sillinger’s father, Mike, played 17 seasons in the NHL from 1990-91 to 2008-09 with 12 different teams.

    As he wasn’t eligible to play full time in the WHL, Sillinger continued to lift his status with how he performed with the Pat Canadians. In leading the SMAAAHL in scoring, Sillinger collected a host of league awards.

Cole Sillinger, left, cuts to the net on an offensive rush for the Tigers.

    He was named the circuit’s most valuable player, rookie of the year, top forward and a first team all-star.

    In the final contest of the SMAAAHL regular season on Feb. 27, Sillinger score a short-handed overtime winning goal to give the Pat Canadians a 3-2 victory over the Blazers in Saskatoon to lock up first place in the league.

    While he played with the Pat Canadians, Sillinger was called up to play four regular season games with the Tigers, where he collected two assists.

Cole Sillinger jets up ice for the Tigers.

    In the WHL playoffs, Sillinger scored his first career goal netting the Tigers first tally in their 5-0 victory in Game 3 of their series with the Oil Kings last Tuesday in Medicine Hat.

    “It was just a huge goal for me, and I will remember it forever,” said Sillinger.

    Sillinger played significant minutes for the Tigers in the post-season, and Tigers head coach and general manager Shaun Clouston was pleased with how well Sillinger fit in.

    “He is a great player,” said Clouston. “He is a great kid.

    “He works hard. He is smart. He plays with confidence with the puck.

    “He understands how the game needs to be played. He was good for us in the games that we called him up.”

    Clouston was comfortable enough to call up Sillinger for a key regular season game at the Canalta Centre on March 9 against the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings. Sillinger finished that contest with a plus-one rating in the plus-minus department helping the Tigers pull out a 4-2 victory that really helped them get a lot closer to eventually clinching a playoff berth.  

Vince Loschiavo scored the OT winner for the Oil Kings.

    “It was great to see him score his first goal in the post-season,” said Clouston. “He has a bright future.”

    Sillinger said one of his biggest early hurdles in joining the Tigers for the WHL post-season was getting over the disappointment of the fact the Pat Canadians were eliminated from the SMAAAHL playoffs.

    “I was in the (Tigers) lineup, so I think I had to get that out of my head really quick,” said Sillinger. “I can’t sit on that loss (with the Pat Canadians).

    “I can’t wish that I was going to win a national championship with my midget team. I think that was just the biggest thing. I had to just get that out of my head and then just have the chance to extend my season with the Tigers and do something special with the guys.”

Captain James Hamblin scored a pair of goals for the Tigers.

    Sillinger believes he did a good job of quickly moving on to focus on what he needed to do to help the Tigers. He said he hasn’t even reflected on what it was like to win all the major individual awards he did with the SMAAAHL.

    “I can’t thank my teammates enough for those,” said Sillinger. “I haven’t really been thinking of those.

    “It has been all Tigers and all WHL and focusing on the Edmonton Oil Kings and focusing on what we have to do to win the series.”

    As for Sunday’s game, the Tigers fell behind 1-0 at the 4:09 mark of the first period, when Fix-Wolansky scored a short-handed goal with a backhand shot on a breakaway.

Captain Trey Fix-Wolansky celebrates his first period goal for the Oil Kings.

    Just 1:45 later, the Tigers evened things up at 1-1 on a goal from 17-year-old rookie left-winger Corson Hopwo.

    Early in the second, Tigers captain James Hamblin scored two goals 27 seconds apart from each other to put the hosts up 3-1.

    Just 25 seconds after that surge, Oil Kings defenceman Wyatt McLeod scored to cut the Tigers edge to 3-2.

    Offensive defenceman Conner McDonald netted the equalizer for the Oil Kings to force a 3-3 tie 31 seconds into the third period. That set the stage for Loschiavo to net the winner in overtime.

    Mads Sogaard made 33 saves to take the setback in goal for the Tigers. Todd Scott turned away 26 shots to pick up the win in net for the Oil Kings.

The fans at the Canalta Centre salute the Tigers.

    The result of Sunday’s game brought an end to the WHL careers of the Tigers overage players in Ryan Jevne, Dylan MacPherson and Linus Nassen.

    The Oil Kings finished first in the Central Division with a 42-18-4-4 record and were favoured to beat the Tigers, who placed fourth in the Central with a 35-27-4-2 mark.

    “I guess when you don’t win it is disappointing,” said Clouston. “I think we battled.

    “I think there were times where it looked like Edmonton was going to take the series right over early, but they didn’t. We were able to continue to battle. I’m proud of our effort and disappointed in the final outcome.”

The Tigers and Oil Kings engage in post-series handshakes.

    Sillinger said he learned how important it is to keep battling in the WHL playoffs no matter what was happening to his team.

    “One thing I am going to take away from it is just never give up,” said Sillinger. “That is one thing we did all series.

    “You can’t get too high with your emotions. You can’t get too low, when you are down. I think that is something that we did tonight.

    “I think that will be the biggest thing I’ll take away from the experience of playoffs.”

The Oil Kings celebrate their OT victory and first round series win.

    Edmonton advances to a best-of-seven WHL Eastern Conference semifinal series to play the winner of the first round series between the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Calgary Hitmen. 

    The series between the Hurricanes and Hitmen is tied 3-3 and will require a series-deciding Game 7 to be held on Tuesday in Lethbridge.

    Next season will be the Tigers 50^th anniversary campaign in the WHL, and Sillinger can’t wait to hit the ice for that unique season.

    “That will be something special,” said Sillinger. “We’ll for sure have high goals for that.

    “We’ll have lots of these guys back. We’ll be really hungry.”

Ridley could reach 4,000 games next season

Bob Ridley called his 3,935th game as the Tigers play-by-play voice.

    When the Medicine Hat Tigers play through their 50^th anniversary season in 2019-20, one of the biggest celebrations might revolve around Bob Ridley, who is the only play-by-play voice the team has ever had.

    Ridley, who will be 75-years-old during the 2019-20 campaign, is in position to call his 4,000^th game as the Tigers play-by-play voice next season.

    In the 49 campaigns the Tigers have played, Ridley has called 3,935 of the club’s 3,936 games. That tally includes action in the regular season, standings tiebreaker games, WHL playoffs and the Memorial Cup tournament.

    Ridley has called 3,503 of the Tigers 3,504 regular season games, the one standings tiebreaker game the club has appeared in, all of their 411 games in the WHL playoffs and all 20 of their contests in the Memorial Cup.

    At the moment, the Tigers 65^th game in the upcoming regular season would be Ridley’s 4,000^th game.

    Of course, Ridley drove the Tigers team bus for most of that stretch.

    No one has called more games as the play-by-play voice of one hockey team at any level as Ridley has.

    If you have any comments you would like to pass along about this post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

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Fix-Wolansky sparks Oil Kings victory over Raiders

Trey Fix-Wolansky (#27) blocks a shot for the Oil Kings.

    PRINCE ALBERT, Sask. – Trey Fix-Wolansky kick started the Edmonton Oil Kings when they needed it.

    Trailing the host Prince Albert Raiders 3-2 in a WHL regular season game on Friday night, Fix-Wolansky put his superhero cape on. While working on a power-play, the Oil Kings captain fired home a shot from the slot to even things up at 3-3 with 1:35 to play in the frame.

    He proceeded to strike for his second goal of the night with 39 seconds remaining in the second period burying a close in feed from centre Liam Keeler to put the Oil Kings ahead 4-3. From that point, the Oil Kings skated away with a 6-3 victory before 2,509 spectators at the Art Hauser Centre.

    Following the game, Fix-Wolansky said his two goals at the end of the second proved to be the turning point of the contest.

Trey Fix-Wolansky had two goals on Friday for the Oil Kings.

    “I think those were huge,” said Fix-Wolansky, whose team improved to 28-15-4-4 to remain first in the Centre Division. “Everybody was playing well at that point.

    “I think a couple of things weren’t going our way. Getting those goals and getting the momentum back that was huge for our group.”

    The draft selection of the NHL’s Columbus Blue Jackets said he was at the right place at the right time, especially on his second tally.

    “Keels (Liam Keeler) found me backdoor and made a great pass, and I just tried to bury it,” said Fix-Wolansky, who leads the Oil Kings in scoring with 27 goals and 52 assists for 79 points. “I got a lot of help on those goals.

Trey Fix-Wolansky celebrates his second goal on Friday.

    “It really wasn’t all myself. It was good for other guys to get involved as well.”

    The Raiders were playing their first game at home since downing the Calgary Hitmen 7-3 back on Jan. 12 and entered Friday’s game after posting a 4-1-0-1 record on an extended six-game road trip.

    The hosts got out to a good start, when left-winger Cole Fonstad opened the game’s scoring at the 12:41 of the first period converting a backdoor feed from linemate Noah Gregor.

    Edmonton jumped ahead 2-1 scoring the first two goals of the second with tallies coming off the sticks of 16-year-old centre Jalen Luypen and offensive-defenceman Conner McDonald.

    With under four minutes to play in the second, the Raiders jumped back out in front 3-2 scoring two goals in a span of 81 seconds. Fonstad netted his second of the night and 20^th of the season to tie things up at 2-2, and captain Brayden Pachal fired home his 13^th of the campaign to give the Raiders a one-goal lead.

Todd Scott made 39 saves in goal for the Oil Kings on Friday.

    That set the stage for Fix-Wolansky to change direction of the contest moments later.

    “We talk about coming off a long road trip, and I guess we fell into that,” said Raiders head coach Marc Habscheid, whose club fell to 41-7-0-2 but still remains first overall in the WHL. “Parents weekend for some reason we have a tough time with that, so we fell into that.

    “Having said that, that is one thing. You can definitely control compete level, and I didn’t like our compete level. I just that we were easy to play against tonight.

    “You can leave all that other stuff out. We decide whether we want to take a hit to make a play, whether we want to drive the net, whether we want to battle and we choose not to tonight, and we paid the price.”

Cole Fonstad had a pair of goals for the Raiders.

    Any hopes of a Raiders comeback were doused at the 5:09 mark of the third, when McDonald rocketed home a shot from the right side boards for his second goal of the night to put the visitors up 5-3.

    That goal chased Raiders starting goaltender Ian Scott from the game having made 22 saves on 27 shots. Boston Bilous turned away all four shots he faced playing the rest of the way in relief.

    Vince Loschiavo scored into an empty net with 3:24 remaining to round out the scoring for Edmonton.

    Todd Scott turned away 39 shots in goal for the Oil Kings.

    Fonstad said it was disappointing to see how things rounded out for his side in the Raiders first game at home in almost three weeks and with the fact most of the parents of the Prince Albert players were in town to watch Friday’s game.

    “You can’t have that many negatives in a game and expect a good outcome,” said Fonstad, whose Raiders return to action on Saturday at 7 p.m. against the Moose Jaw Warriors. “We have a lot stuff to kind of put behind us, and we have to be ready to work tomorrow, or else we’re not going to get the outcome we want again.

Vince Loschiavo scored an empty-net goal for the Oil Kings.

    “We always love playing here. I think everyone was excited. It is too bad.”

    The Oil Kings head to Saskatoon on Saturday to face the Blades at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.

Friday marked the first time in three meetings the Oil Kings were able to beat the Raiders this season. Fix-Wolansky was pleased his club could break through and beat the Raiders.

    “It was super nice,” said Fix-Wolansky. “I thought we played them well the last two games.

“To get the win in this one, that was huge for us.”

    After the dust settled from Friday’s encounter, Habscheid said the best thing for his side is the fact they have to hit the ice right away to host the Warriors on Saturday.

The Oil Kings celebrate their victory over the Raiders on Friday night.

    “We can compete better than that,” said Habscheid. “We have a good character group.

“They will be better tomorrow.”

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Blades supporting cast needs to help Hebig and Shmyr

Cameron Hebig (#9) fires a shot on goal for the Blades.

    It is starting to feel like the Saskatoon Blades are a two-person team relying on star overage forwards Cameron Hebig and Braylon Shmyr.

    During the early going of the 2017-18 WHL regular season, Hebig and Shmyr have piled up the points, but it feels like their efforts have been wasted a few too many times.

    On Wednesday night at the SaskTel Centre, the Blades dropped to 3-6, when they were double up 6-3 by the visiting Vancouver Giants. Hebig scored twice for the Blades, and Shmyr picked up an assist on Saskatoon’s other tally.

    Hebig has seven goals and six assists in seven appearances for Saskatoon, while Shmyr has seven goals and seven assists dressing for all nine games the Blades have played in the current campaign.

Braylon Shmyr wheels into the offensive zone for the Blades.

    Despite the efforts of that dynamic duo on Wednesday, the Blades didn’t get enough production from their supporting cast, and the combination of their defence and goaltending wasn’t strong enough to give them a chance to win.

    A sparse crowd of 2,578 watched the visiting Giants improve to 4-4-1-1 by receiving contributions from a number of sources. Shifty 18-year-old centre James Malm, who stands 5-foot-8 and weighs 170 pounds, led the way for the Giants recording a goal and two assists. At the moment, the Langley, B.C., product is Vancouver’s leading scorer with two goals and nine assists.

    Brendan Semchuk, who is an 18-year-old Kamloops, B.C., product, potted a pair of goals playing right wing on Malm’s line. The Giants scoring was rounded out with singles coming from Milos Roman, Tyler Popowich and Owen Hardy.

James Malm had a goal and two assists for the Giants.

    The Blades stumbled out of the gate with a costly error, when Russian import defenceman Mark Rubinchik gave the puck away to Roman in front of the Saskatoon net.
    Roman quickly blasted the gift past Blades netminder Ryan Kubic to give the Giants a 1-0 lead.

    Saskatoon did show fight. Late in the first, Hebig wired home a shot from the slot on a power play to tie things up at 1-1.
    Just 21 seconds into the second period, the Blades went ahead 2-1, when Czech import defenceman Libor Hajek pinched low to the right side of the Giants net to pot his third of the season.

    The lead lasted just 14 seconds as Semchuk tied things up at 2-2 with his first of the contest.
    Popowich scored late in the second and Malm and Semchuk, with his second tally of the game, opened the scoring in the third to give the Giants a 5-2 lead.

    At the 12:14 mark of the third, Hebig netted his second of the contest to cut the gap to 5-3. The Blades applied pressure after that tally, but 17-year-old rookie netminder Todd Scott withstood the surge.

Brendan Semchuk scored twice for the Giants.

    With 3:41 to play in the third, the Blades pulled Kubic for an extra attacker, but Hardy scored into an empty net for the Giants to round out the scoring in the contest.

    Kubic turned away 26-of-31 shots to take the loss in goal for the Blades.
    Scott made 32 stops in goal for the Giants to pick up his first career WHL victory to build some personal momentum as his team travels to Brandon on Friday to face the Wheat Kings.

    So far this season, the Blades have scored a total of 29 goals and Hebig and Shmyr have score a combined 14 of those tallies.

    The Blades two regular goalies also don’t have the most flattering of numbers.

Some rough stuff goes down in front of the Vancouver net.

    Kubic has a 3-4 record, a 4.19 goals against average and a .862 save percentage.
    Back up Joel Grzybowski has an 0-1 record, a 4.68 goals against average and a .825 save percentage in 90 minutes of work.

    Those inflated numbers haven’t been all the fault of the two netminders.
    With that said, the play of the Blades defencemen and their netminders have to be better in their own zone.

    The Blades, who have missed the playoffs in each of the past four seasons, don’t have to wait long to try and get a better effort.
    They travel to Prince Albert on Saturday to face the Raiders (3-4-3) at 7 p.m. at the Art Hauser Centre.

Blue and gold remember Downie

Gord Downie remembered on the SaskTel Centre big scoreboard screen.

    With the passing for Gord Downie late Tuesday night, the Blades ensured the legendary frontman of The Tragically Hip was remembered during their contest on Wednesday.

    During warmups, the Blades played only songs from the iconic Canadian rock band. Following warmups, the Blades played a video of Downie and the Hip playing a song on the big screen on the scoreboard at the SaskTel Centre.

    When the song concluded, the scoreboard showed a picture of Downie on it with a written inscription, “Gordon Downie 1964-2017.”

    The Blades also played a number of songs from The Tragically Hip during stoppages in play.

Downie passed away at age 53 after a battle with brain cancer.

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