40 AND COUNTING
Medicine Hat, AB — The Medicine Hat Tigers rich history spans 45 seasons, all in the Medicine Hat Arena. Over those years some of the games greats have worn the orange and black. What most fans forget is the amount of success the franchise has had. Tuesday night marked the 20th time in franchise history the Tigers have won 40 games in a season.
Which means in the 45 year history, the Tigers have won 40 or more games in a season 44% of the time. Over the past 12 seasons of Tiger hockey however, the Tabbies have reach the 40 win mark 10 times, with each one of those seasons reaching the playoffs.
The first 40 win season happened during the 1974-75 season where the Tigers, led by Don Murdoch’s 82 goals finished 2nd in the then called West Division and 2nd overall in the WHL, sporting a 40-22-8 record for 88 points.
Over the course of the 5 WHL Championships for the Tigers, only 1 season did the team not reach 40 victories, a 39 win season in 1972-73. But in the championships following that, each team handily won 40 games, 48 in 1986-87, 44 in 1987-88, 40 in 2003-04 and the highest total out of them all a 52 win campaign by the 2006-2007 Championship team.
Tigers fans have been lucky to have so many successful seasons under their belt and as we finish off the final 8 games of the 2014-15 edition of the Tigers, look for the orange black to increase their win total.
