There were 2,522 fans on hand Tuesday night to watch Gavin McKenna perform as a 15-year-old at Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre. It’s a safe bet the building will be full or close to it when he makes his second and final career visit on Blanshard Street as a member of the Medicine Hat Tigers in 2025-26 as the likely top-ranked player for the 2026 NHL draft.
It could very well be reminiscent of that memorable night last November when fellow-prodigy Connor Bedard scored a hat-trick at a jammed Memorial Centre for the Regina Pats en route to becoming the top overall pick in this year’s NHL draft.
McKenna, the 15-year-old budding star from Whitehorse, had five goals and 14 points in eight games heading into the game but was held point-less by the Victoria Royals although a withering shot of his hit the crossbar in the third period.
The Royals (4-5) played selfless, trapping, shot-blocking hockey and triumphed 4-1 to win for the fourth time in five games after opening the Western Hockey League season with four losses. The swift-skating Tigers, guided by former Vancouver Canucks head coach Willie Desjardins, fell to 5-3-1 as they could not solve the strangling approach of the Royals.
It was Medicine Hat’s first visit to the Island since pre-pandemic 2019. They come to Blanshard once every two seasons in normal times.
Victoria held Medicine Hat’s league-leading power play to 0-3 but the Royals could not be happy going 0-5 themselves after scoring four power-play goals the previous game against the Swift Current Broncos.
The Royals faced a goaltender from Nanaimo for the second consecutive game in the Tigers’ six-foot-three Evan May, following Joey Rocha of the Broncos over the weekend. May finished with 23 saves. Braden Holt was there when needed in the crease for Victoria in a 25-save performance.
Yet another Nanaimo product, forward Brayden Boehm of the Tigers, opened scoring on the goal of the season so far at the Memorial Centre. That was matched by rookie Cole Reschny of Victoria on a deft move that tied the game in the first period to show why Reschny was taken third overall in the 2022 WHL prospects draft behind McKenna and Jackson Smith of the Tri-City Americans.
Robin Sapousek, the 2023 Czech world junior championship silver medallist scored his fifth goal of the season, and Reggie Newman his fourth, to give the Royals a two-goal lead in the second period. Dawson Pasternak added a goal in the third period for a Royals squad that took its chances when they presented themselves.
Sapousek, Reschny, Pasternak and defenceman Justin Kipkie, an NHL draft pick of the Arizona Coyotes, finished with two-point nights.
“The main thing is winning,” said Sapousek, on the arena PA following the game. “We worked hard and can shoot and score.”
The sophomore Czech import is pleased with where he landed in the WHL: “I am happy to be here. I love the fans and love the city. It’s a nice place to play.”
The Royals host the Spokane Chiefs on Friday and Saturday nights at the Memorial Centre.
ICE CHIPS: McKenna was not awarded exceptional status by the WHL, as reported in Tuesday’s edition. The exceptional status was in fact granted by B.C. Hockey, which administers hockey in McKenna’s native Yukon, and Hockey Alberta, the jurisdiction Medicine Hat falls under.
