Tigers want to win Memorial Cup for goalie Meneghin: ‘Harrison's our heartbeat'

Winnipeg Free Press

2 days ago

RIMOUSKI – Oasiz Wiesblatt skated up to the Western Hockey League's championship trophy.
A hockey team's captain traditionally hoists the silver chalice first before handing it off to teammates for their celebratory laps.
Not this time.
Wiesblatt, who wears the 'C' for the Medicine Hat Tigers, posed for a quick photo with the Ed Chynoweth Cup two weeks ago before calling over Harrison Meneghin — the team's goalie who unexpectedly lost his father in March — to raise it into the air.
'Something that we did for Harry,' Wiesblatt said of that night in Spokane, Wash. 'We're all striving for doing things for him, and for the team and the city, but this thing was a lot more special than that.'
The Tigers have rallied around Meneghin in the months since his father, Derek, died at just 49.
Their goal now is to give him another trophy to lift Sunday when they battle the London Knights in the Memorial Cup final.
'Without him, we wouldn't be here,' star forward Gavin McKenna said. 'We want to do it for him, he's done a lot for us.'
On March 23 in Calgary, Meneghin stopped 35 of 37 shots to help the Tigers beat the Hitmen and clinch first place in the Eastern Conference in their final regular-season game.
The team celebrated after achieving a season-long goal. The mood drastically shifted when Meneghin stepped off the ice and received the devastating news of his father's passing.
'It went from such a high to such a low, I've never experienced a flip so quick on a team,' Tigers head coach Willie Desjardins said. 'It didn't just devastate Harrison, it devastated the whole team, because the whole team looked at it like, what happens if it was my dad?'
'It was so, so bad. But with that, for sure we rallied, the boys had his back,' he added. 'They did everything they could for him. They knew he was going to have good times and bad times, and they were there for it.'
Meneghin flew home to Surrey, B.C., for a few days, but returned to the Tigers for their next game on March 28, posting a 21-save shutout in a 4-0 win over the Swift Current Broncos to open the playoffs.
Wiesblatt said it's one of the most memorable moments of his junior career.
'He didn't have to come, and we said we would do it for him, and he decided to come back,' he said. 'It's just a really remarkable thing.'
Meneghin went on to earn the WHL playoff MVP after backstopping the Tigers with a 14-1 record, posting three shutouts, a 2.32 goals-against average and a .907 save percentage.
Two days later, the 20-year-old signed an entry-level contract with the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning.
And so far in the Memorial Cup, the six-foot-four, 174-pound netminder has a 3-0 record with a .927 save percentage, including a 35-stop outing in a 3-1 win over London that propelled Medicine Hat into the final.
'Harrison's our heartbeat,' Wiesblatt said. 'For him to go through something like that, which is never easy to go through and such a big tragedy, but for him to be here with the team, and for him to almost play for his dad, it's been unbelievable to be a part of.'
Wiesblatt's decision to hand Meneghin the WHL trophy is one of many examples of ways the Tigers have tried to support him.
Desjardins and some teammates attended Derek Meneghin's funeral in April. The head coach, who acquired Meneghin from Lethbridge earlier this season, quickly learned why he has a lighthearted nature.
'His dad had a great sense of humour. Harrison has a great sense of humour,' Desjardins said. 'He's always involved in something. There's some joke going on, you know Harrison's part of it.
'I could see his dad in Harrison.'
Medicine Hat forward Mathew Ward, who also grew up playing spring hockey with Meneghin, said teammates have made a point of spending time with their netminder.
'You just don't really want to be alone thinking about stuff, because then things can snowball,' Ward said. 'He definitely did rely on us a lot, I know that, but I think that just speaks to how much of a family we are in our room.'
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Desjardins also said they've given Meneghin — who hasn't spoken to reporters at the Memorial Cup — a break from media sessions, hoping to avoid a scenario where difficult moments come flooding back to him in front of cameras.
'The hardest thing about something like that is you can be going along so well, then one thing can happen, and it can bring you back to the worst moment you've ever had,' he said. 'That's just the nature of it. So I don't know when that moment could happen, but you don't want it to happen in media.'
The hockey, meanwhile, is giving Meneghin something else to focus on.
'There's no right or wrong way to grieve,' Desjardins said. 'What you do, you do as hard as you can, and then you let them know that they're part of it and you're doing it for them.'
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 31, 2025.