Canes' Lose 6-1 to Kootenay....Edmonton Tonight

Not the way the Hurricanes were hoping to start the 2nd half of the season last night with a 6-1 loss to the Kootenay Ice at the Enmax Centre. The Canes' started off strong in the first couple minutes, but after that Kootenay took over and the Hurricanes had trouble from that point on. The Canes' struggled all evening and couldn't generate any offence. They were out shot 39-19. Lethbridge's only goal was scored short-handed by Drew Hoff late in the 1st period. Mitch Versteeg was ejected from the game and given a 5 minute major for boarding on a hit that sent Ice forward Dustin Sylvester off on a stretcher. We hope for him a speedy recovery. From our vantage point in the broadcast booth it looked like a clean hit and the replay showed Sylvester turning for the puck as Versteeg hit him. According to the number of callers and people emailing on our post game show, those fans that saw that hit seemed to think it was clean as well. I guess the officials disagreed. All in all it wasn't a good performance by the Canes' and they will look to come out with a better effort tonight against Edmonton.

Lethbridge was unable to get much going versus the Ice. The Hurricanes pulled starter Michael Tadjdeh in favour of Brandon Anderson who played the final 10 minutes or so. That was his first ever WHL action. With the loss, the Canes now fall one point back of Kootenay in the Eastern Conference standings.

The Hurricanes are playing without 5 regulars: Boychuk (World Juniors), Metsola (World Juniors), Therieau (Under 17's), Bancks & Ross (Injury). I know the Canes' won't use those players not being available as an excuse. There are other teams in the league right now in the same boat. Assistant Coach Matt Kabayama said on our post-game show last night that they have to play with the players they have here now.

Tonight is the 5th meeting of the year between the Hurricanes and Oil Kings. Lethbridge has won all 4 games so far. The Canes' have outscored Edmonton 16-10 in the season series thus far.

Brandon will be in Lethbridge Tuesday (6pm) and then it's off to Saskatchewan for 3 games to open the New Year.

Tonight's game is a 6pm start. The pre-game show on CJOC at 5:30.