Game Day: Canes' vs Prince Albert...Hurricanes Swing Late Day Deal with Moose Jaw

A win is a win and for the Lethbridge Hurricanes Sunday's victory over the visiting Edmonton Oil Kings was an important one in probably more ways than one. This team needed a victory, something positive to build on after a tough stretch of only one win in it's previous 9 games. The Canes started out strong scoring 3 goals in the first period and if you ask head coach Michael Dyck he'd likely tell you that's exactly what he wanted to see from his hockey team. Edmonton got two of those goals back in what was a penalty filled 2nd period, but Lethbridge managed to add a couple more and win it 5-3. It wasn't a flawless win, not by any means, but right now that's what this club needed...to taste victory again and given the fist pump and smile by goaltender Juha Metsola after the clock clicked down to zero, it was likely some relief for the team as well.
Tonight the Hurricanes will take on Prince Albert for the first of 4 meetings this season. The Raiders are sitting a few points ahead of the Canes' in the Eastern Conference standings, but have played 6 more games than Lethbridge so far this season. P-A is lead by Justin Bernhardt and Ryan McDonald who are one-two in scoring on their team this year.
Lethbridge has been working a lot on it's power play lately in practice. It's one area the team is trying to improve on. They've been trying a number of different things to find a spark on the man advantage, but so far it's been tough sledding.
Another win here tonight versus the Raiders, and the Canes' will be back to the 500 mark and improve their home record to 9 and 3.
We'll likely see similar line combinations tonight as well. The coaching staff tweaked a few things the other night and that seemed to add something to the Canes' game. One thing is for sure, with this league being as good as it is and competition very tight between the teams Lethbridge will have to play with a lot of intensity every night. No game is a given anymore and teams have to work for wins. If the Hurricanes come out and work hard each game they can beat any team on any night. The work ethic, the drive, the determination, and that “edge” that GM Roy Stasiuk talks about all have to be there. That's what has made this team successful in the past. That's Hurricanes Hockey!
Tonight's game versus Prince Albert is a 7 o'clock start from the Enmax Centre. The Pre-game show on CJOC at 6:30.

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Lethbridge, AB – Lethbridge Hurricanes General Manager, Roy Stasiuk, announced this afternoon the Canes have traded forward Cody Smuk; along with a 5th round draft pick in the 2009 Western Hockey League Bantam Draft to the Moose Jaw Warriors in exchange for the rights to 18 year old goaltender Todd Mathews and Moose Jaw’s 6th round pick in the 2009 WHL Bantam Draft.

Mathews started 20 games last season with the Warriors as a rookie backup to Moose Jaw starting goaltender Joey Perricone, compiling a 9-5-0-1 record with a 2.75 goals against average and a save percentage of 0.895. With the Warriors early struggles this season Mathews had amassed a record of 3-7-0-1; before recently being reassigned to Notre Dame of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League, where he won his first start this past weekend.

“At this point, our expectation is for Todd Mathews to remain at Notre Dame and continue to develop his skill and confidence. This move allows us to add an 18 year old goaltender with more then 30 WHL games under his belt and add overall depth to our roster at the goaltending position.” said Stasiuk adding “With the addition of Drew Hoff and the return of forwards Garrett Taylor and Dan Iwanski from injury, we feel that this will also give Cody Smuk an opportunity to play more minutes for a different team as well as allowing him to play closer to his hometown of Saskatoon.”