Canes' Move Up in East...@ Brandon Tonight

Hello for Brandon!

Well you know it's too cold when a short two block walk from the hotel to Tim Horton's seems like a serious task! It's bright and sunny here in Southwest Manitoba, but the windchill this morning makes it feel like it's around 46 below. We arrived here just after 2 this morning after a 3 hour bus ride for Regina.

The Lethbridge Hurricanes made up ground on a few teams in the Eastern Conference after a 3-2 win on the road in Regina last night. In the past few weeks, we've seen the Canes' spread the scoring around and that was the case again Tuesday. Cody Castro scored his first ever WHL goal, Garrett Taylor chipped in with a pair of assists, Cam Braes scored on the power play, and Dan Iwanski added an assist. Top that off with the game winner early in the 2nd by Dwight King and some solid goaltending from Juha Metsola and Lethbridge has now was 9 of its past 11 games and the team is currently 6 games over the .500 mark with a record of 20-14-0-1. Secondary scoring again was a factor as was special teams. Lethbridge has been getting contributions from right across the line-up as of late and that is one reason why things have changed in the past month in a good way for the Canes'.

Tonight marks the exact half-way point in the WHL season for Lethbridge. The Hurricanes, with the win last night puts the team in a 3-way tie for 4th spot with Regina and Swift Current and now one point ahead of tonight's opponent....the Brandon Wheat Kings. Like last night, this game this evening is another so-called "four pointer" as Lethbridge has a chance to go up 3-points on the Wheaties heading into the Christmas break. A win tonight would vault the Hurricanes into sole possession of 4th place in the East. That, I think is a huge accomplishment given the fact the Hurricanes had a rough ride during October when the team managed only one victory in 9 games. What a difference a few weeks can make. I think the Canes' have shown they are a talented young team. It just took things a lot longer to get going this season that most of us expected.

This is the second meeting of the season between these two teams. Lethbridge won the previous match-up back at the Enmax Centre a few weeks ago. Brandon will play in Lethbridge again on December 30th.

After this game in Brandon, the Hurricanes with head straight back to Lethbridge and tomorrow most players will be heading out for the Christmas break and return for practice on Boxing Day as they don't play another game until the 27th when they host the Kootenay Ice.

Tonight's game from Brandon is a 6 o'clock start Alberta time. The pre-game show on CJOC at 5:30.