Tigers Vs Rebels

Road Record
Tigers: 22-9-3-2 .681 pct
Rebels: 22-9-3-2 .681 pct

Home Record
Tigers: 24-9-1-2 ---.708 pct
Rebels: 26-7-1-2 ---.764 pct

Last 20 Games (regular season)
Tigers: .750 pct
Rebel: .725 pct

Team Save Percentage
Tigers: .917
Rebels: .9195

Defense
Rebels defense +162 2100 shots against
Tigers defense +118. 2244 shots against

Defensive Scoring
Tigers Defense scoring: 30 Goals 132 assists
Rebels Defense Scoring: 35 goals 129 assists

20 Goal Scorers
Tigers: 5
Rebels: 5

PPG Players
Tigers: 4
Rebels: 3

PP
Tigers: 21.1% (playoffs) 40.9%
Rebels: 22.2% (playoffs) 23.9%

PK
Tigers: 81.9 (playoffs) 65.6%
Rebels: 85.5 (playoffs) 100%
Season Series
Fri Oct 01 Red Deer 1 Medicine Hat 2
Sat Oct 02 Medicine Hat 4 Red Deer 1 Final
Fri Jan 21 Red Deer 5 Medicine Hat 3 Final
Tue Feb 08 Medicine Hat 3 Red Deer 1 Final
Tue Mar 01 Medicine Hat 4 Red Deer 2 Final
Fri Mar 11 Red Deer 2 Medicine Hat 3 Final OT

All extremely close games. This series is a contender to go the distance.

Goalies:
Equal Both teams goal-tending is top notch. Tyler Bunz is close to being ready. Will it take him a game or two to shake off the rust? Or will they give the nod to Dubyk? In games past against Red Deer the Tigers goal-tending have been huge factors for their victories.

Defense
Gotta give the edge to Red Deer here. Their top 5 guys are very solid and physical. Their top 2 are whl elite and will probably be matched up against the Linden Vey and Emerson Etem line if paired together.

Forwards
Equal: Tigers scored 3 goals less than the rebels. Tyler Pitlick being out doesn't help, but they have been getting offense from everyone lately. I think the Tigers will need their 3rd and 4th lines to continue to play incredible, otherwise defensive line matching for the rebels becomes a lot easier.

I thought In Games past the Tigers power-play has struggled against Red Deer's PK. Red Deer does an excellent job in their own zone on the PK. The Tigers will need key goals at key times, so hopefully their powerplay is up to the task.

Questions?
Will playing an incredibly talented team like Brandon in the first round help the Tigers become more defensively reliable in round 2? Can Tyler Bunz or Devan Dubyk match their incredible regular season performances against Red Deer?

Can the Tigers shut-down Ryan-Nugent-Hopkins and the rebels top 2 lines? Will the Rebels physical play take a toll in a longer series? Can the Tigers get continued great efforts from their 3rd and 4th line players? Can the Tigers solve at times an unbeatable Darcy Kuemper?

In past games Rebel defenders have gotten frustrated and taken unnecessary penalties, Can the Tigers play a clean physical un-retaliatory game and take advantage of this?

On paper by the stats its pretty equal. The Biggest challenge for the Tigers will be to push through all the interference, physical play, and tight gaps, while not taking any unnecessary penalties.