Canes Beat Tigers in O-T....Kamloops Tonight

A well earned victory last night for the Lethbridge Hurricanes. The Canes' were in a battle with rival Medicine Hat all evening and in the end Lethbridge managed a 4-3 win in overtime extending it's winning streak to 7 games. The Tigers opened the scoring on a power play in the 2nd period after the two teams failed to get on the board in the 1st. Medicine Hat came very close though. The Tigers hit two goal posts and a crossbar in the opening frame, but the game was still scoreless following 20 minutes of play. Lethbridge got a few breaks there, but they used those breaks to their advantage later on in the game. The Canes' managed to tie things up at one early in the 3rd, but the Tigers scored another power play goal to go up 2-1. That's the way it stayed until late in the third when the game got even more interesting. Lethbridge would tie it up at 2 on a power play goal and then Dwight King scored shorthanded with a few minutes left to give the Hurricanes a 3-2 lead. It looked like Lethbridge would take it regulation, but the Tigers pulled the goalie while shorthanded and scored with 7 tenths of a second to go to force overtime. In the extra period, The Canes would notch a power play goal 27 seconds in by Zach Boychuk and in a nutshell, that was the game! Lethbridge has won 9 of it's past 10 on this current streak and no doubt playing it's best hockey of the season right now.

The Hurricanes also had to battle the officials at times last night too. There were a number of questionable non-calls by the two men wearing the orange arm bands in the Hat. On a number of occasions Hurricanes Head Coach Michale Dyck was noticeably upset at some the calls or non-calls. I think the Canes' did a heck of job fighting through that, not letting it get them off their game. As crazy as this may sound, maybe that even strengthened the team's resolve and gave them that extra push and drive to want to win even more. Juha Metsola played another solid game between the pipes for Lethbridge which improved to 18-12-0-1 on the season.

Not much time for the Hurricanes to enjoy that victory either. They're back at it tonight on home-ice as they host Kamloops. This is the 2nd meeting of the year between the Canes' and Blazers. The Blazers won the previous meeting Halloween night in Kamloops so I would think the high-flying Hurricanes would be looking to even the score so to speak. The Blazers have only 3 wins in their past 10 games and have lost their previous two. This game will also mark the return of former Canes' goaltender Justin LeClerc and Lethbridge native Nick Ross back to the Enmax Centre.

Lethbridge's current little run as of late has moved this team up in the Eastern Conference standings. The Canes' now sit in 5th spot, 3 points back of Regina and 5 behind the Tigers. This team has made up a tonne of ground lately and it's making things a little more interesting for some of the other teams in a tight Eastern Conference.

Tonight's game against the Blazers is a 7 o'clock start from the Enmax Centre. The pre-game show on CJOC at 6:30.