Canes' Unable to Solve Tigers...Next Up Red Deer Tonight

A 2-1 loss for the Hurricanes on home ice last night to rival Medicine Hat. The Tigers opened the scoring in the first and then added another in the second to go up 2-0. Lethbridge started to claw it's way back when Eric Mestery scored his first of the year to cut the M.H. lead to 2-1, but that would be as close as the Hurricanes would get. The loss drops the Hurricanes back to below one game under .500 at 11-12-0-1. Lethbridge outshot the Tigers 41-23 and had their chances especially in the first period and again in the late stages of the 3rd. Medicine Hat goaltender Ryan Holfeld was the game's first star. One person who emailed in the post game show was upset with the Hurricanes shots, suggesting all 41-shots directed towards the Tigers goal "were right at him". That I disagree with. Yes, there were a number of shots that went into Holfeld's chest, but the Hurricanes did make him work for a few of those stops. The Hurricanes need to finish their chances too. Cam Braes was set up nicely in front of the net in the second and he put it over top. As Assist. Coach Matt Kabayama said on the post game show, the team does need to generate more shots from outside and in close. I thought the effort was there overall, but the Canes' came up short.
Another person who sent us an email talked about a need for the Hurricanes to beat "the good teams". I do in a sense agree with that. If the Hurricanes want to get back into the thick of things in the Eastern Conference they will have to start making noise against teams like Medicine Hat, Saskatoon, Calgary, Kootenay, Regina, Brandon, etc. I suppose the Canes' are expected to beat those teams lower than them in the standings, but as I've said before no game is a given win in this league and teams have to work for everything. Nothing comes easy.
Tonight we'll get our first look-see at Red Deer. The Rebels have improved over last year, but are still struggling after 28 games played. Red Deer is 8-15-0-5. They're led by Landon Ferraro and Cass Mappin who are one-two in scoring on that team. These two teams will play a couple of times before the Christmas break. The Rebels will be in Lethbridge December 5th which is Teddy bear Toss Night at the Enmax Centre. Tonight's game is 7:30 start. The pre-game show on CJOC at 7.