TIGERS SKILLS COMPETITION A SUCCESS

Medicine Hat, AB — The Medicine Hat Tigers had some fun on Monday night with the 4th annual Skills Competition presented by ATB Financial. The Tigers competed in 6 different events and sent the 600+ fans in attendance home entertained and happy with a great showing of skill and speed.

Take a look at this year’s roster and winners!

Team Cox (Black)

• #3 Tommy Vannelli
• #4 Ty Stanton
• #5 Tyler Lewington
• #7 Matt Bradley
• #15 Ty Schultz
• #16 Markus Eisenschmid
• #24 Alex Mowbray
• #27 Mark Rassell
• #31 Nick Schneider
• #44 Kyle Burroughs
• Captain: #36 Trevor Cox

 

Team Sanford (White)

• #6 Matt Staples
• #9 Zach Fischer
• #11 Steven Owre (injured)
• #12 Kyle Becker
• #17 Blake Penner
• #19 David Quenneville
• #20 Anthony Ast
• #21 Chad Butcher
• #22 Chad Labelle
• #29 Dryden Hunt
• #30 Marek Langhamer
• Captain: #26 Cole Sanford

 

 

In the night’s first event, the team’s were tasked with putting their fastest skaters against each other to determine who actually is the fastest skater on the team.

Heat 1: Eisenschmid vs. Ast – Winner: Eisenschmid

Heat 2: Bradley vs. Sanford – Winner: Sanford

Heat 3: Rassell vs. Butcher – Winner: Rassell

Heat 4 (2 fastest times): Sanford vs. Eisenschmid – Winner: Sanford

Team Sanford wins the Fastest Skater competition with a time of 13.29 seconds

 

 

The night’s second event was a showcase of skill and talent in the Accuracy Shot, shooting down 4 targets in the quickest amount of time and least amount of pucks. Each player had 10 pucks to knock down the 4 targets.

Mowbray: 8 pucks – 18.13 sec                 Sanford: 8 pucks – 21.88 sec

Burroughs: 7 pucks – 18.84 sec               Fischer: 6 pucks – 19.08 sec

Vannelli: 7 pucks – 16.76 sec                    Hunt: 10 pucks – 29.03 sec

Team Sanford wins the Accuracy Shot competition with Zach Fischer’s 6 pucks in 19.08 seconds.

 

 

In one of two marquee events on this night, the Hardest Shot competition was led by Tommy Vannelli, last year’s winner with a blast of 99mph. This year the contestants had 3 shots to try and break the 100mph barrier.

Vannelli: 83, 88, 86         Quenneville: 66, 88, 86

Lewington: 89, 89, 89       Becker: 84, 85, 86

Burroughs: 84, 84, 84       Hunt: 83, 84, 90

Team Sanford wins the Hardest Shot Competition with Dryden Hunt’s 90mph blast.

 

 

In one of the unique events of the night, the two teams were setup in the Team Relay, an event which puts both agility and stickhandling to the test. There were 2 groups (1 from each team) in this event made up of 5 players each. The fastest time was the winner.

Cox, Stanton, Eisenschmid, Mowbray: 1:00.58

Butcher, Labelle, Penner, Ast: 56.40 sec

Team Sanford won the Team Relay competition with a total time of 56.40 seconds.

 

 

The other marquee event of the competition, the Showtime Shootout which was highlighted last season by an unreal goal by Trevor Cox. Cox did not participate this season, but the competitors included all 5 rookies. Each player had 2 chances to impress the judges and record the highest scores possible.

Rassell: 42, 56 = 98 pts                         Quenneville: 26, 36 = 62 pts

Schultz: 44.5, 43 = 87.5 pts                   Fischer: 51.5, 12 = 63.5 pts

Bradley: 9, 45 = 54 pts                          Butcher: 5.5, 19 = 24.5 pts

Team Cox wins their first event, the Showtime Shootout with Mark Rassell’s 98 points.

 

 

The final event of the night was a fun Elimination Shootout, a time where both teams are sent at the goalie in an attempt to be the last player standing.

Vannelli: 0/1                                 Staples: 0/1

Stanton: 0/1                                 Fischer: 0/1

Lewington: 2/3                              Becker: 1/2

Bradley: 0/1                                 Penner: 3/3

Schultz: 0/1                                  Quenneville: 1/2

Eisenschmid: 1/2                           Ast: 0/1

Mowbray: 0/1                                Butcher: 2/3

Rassell: 0/1                                   Labelle: 0/1

Cox: 1/2                                       Sanford: 1/2

Burroughs: 0/1                              Hunt: 1/2

Team Sanford wins the Elimination Shootout by Blake Penner being the last person standing, scoring in all 3 rounds of the competition, beating Chad Butcher.

 

 

The overall winner of the competition was Team Sanford who won by an overwhelming pace after starting the night out with a 14-1 mark. Team Cox tried to tie the score in the remaining events but was unable to pull out the victory.

 

 

Another victory was had on this night as the Tiger fans in attendance help raise $3407 to the MS Society of Canada! Thank you!