Tigers' Harrison Meneghin: "Every Game Is A Must Win"
Meneghin in Lethbridge (Credit: Erica Perreaux)As we get into the home stretch of the regular season, teams are beginning to buckle down and fight even harder for every victory they can in order to secure either a playoff position, or better seeding once they get there. The Medicine Hat Tigers are well on their way to first place in the Eastern conference, and improved their chances even more with two wins in three games over the weekend.
"Every point is a lot for us right now." said goaltender Harrison Meneghin after Sunday's win against the Edmonton Oil Kings. "We have a really resilient group, so we know how important these games are for us."
Despite a 5-3 decision in favor of Medicine Hat on Sunday, both Meneghin and Oil Kings goaltender Alex Worthington made a handful of Save of the Night, perhaps even Save of the Year candidates. A goaltending battle like that does not go unnoticed, even when you're on the winning end.
"Yeah, I mean you know it's always a competition. You always notice when the other goalie makes a good save and sometimes you gotta give a little bit of credit where credit's due. He made a huge save in that second period and you know sometimes saves go, you know, without a lot of notice, and I feel like goalies are able to notice things like that. Worthington's a great goalie and it's always fun to go against him."
As is nearly the rest of the WHL, the Tigers are running on fumes in terms of roster numbers. Forward Marcus Pacheco ended up getting some reps in on the blue line, where he scored his first WHL goal as a defenceman.
"When you see a guy like Pacheco come back on defense, you know, you want to work a little bit harder for a guy that's sacrificing some minutes that he may want to be at forward." Meneghin said. "But he gets the opportunity to play defense and does a great job, so, you know when a teammate does that for you, you just want to battle even harder for them."
Meneghin and the Tigers will enjoy a little break before returning to action on Friday night, where they head east to visit the Regina Pats.
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