Canes' Take On Rebels in Red Deer 7:30pm

A solid effort by the Hurricanes last night at home despite a 3-2 overtime loss to the Calgary Hitmen.

One of my keys to last night's game for Lethbridge were the 3 E's.....Energy, Excitement, and Edge and I think the Canes played with all three. Juha Metsola was outstanding for the Hurricanes in goal as the Canes' were out shot 49-25. He helped secure a single point for Lethbridge is the race for playoff positioning in what has become a pretty clogged up Eastern Conference. Zach Boychuk I thought had a very good game for the Canes' as well. He scored once added one assist and also led the charge offensively with some impressive moves and scoring chances. That's the Zach Boychuk the fans want to see game in and game out going down the stretch. He definately added that element of excitement as the packed house at the Enmax Centre was into the game right from the start. I think the fans really appreciated the effort by the Canes' last night too! The other Lethbridge goal was scored by Carter Ashton on the power play early in the 2nd period. Give the Hitmen credit. They are an extremely good squad that pounds away at you every shift. They recorded their 43rd win in 53 games last night. They will no question be a force to be reckoned with heading in the post-season.

It was also nice to see a few more bodies in the line-up for the Hurricanes. Craig Orfino came back from suspension, while Mitch Versteeg returned on defence after missing a couple of games with injury. The Canes' back end has been a bit short the past few games with Versteeg out of the line-up. I think his addition back last night helped take some minutes off Ben Wright, Brennan Yadlowski, and Max Ross, who all have lugged a tonne of ice time over the past few games. In fact, one the people that keeps stats for Lethbridge up in the media area told me before the game last night that he had a stop watch on Ben Wright in the Regina game on Wednesday and that he played nearly 36 minutes in that one game alone.

Tonight the Canes' head back up to Red Deer for the 2nd time in a week. The Hurricanes lost 5-3 there last week and will try and get back at the Rebels in this one. Lethbridge also hopes to build on last night's effort versus Calgary. The Hurricanes are now on the road for the next 5 games and won't play another home game until February 13th.

Lethbridge has 19 games to go in the regular season including tonight's game in Red Deer. Brad Robson, the Canes' acting assistant coach said last night on our post game show that he'd like to see the team win 14 or 15 of their remaining games. As it sits now, the Canes' sit in 7th spot in the conference, two points back of Kootenay, 3 back of Swift Current, and 3 points ahead of both Regina and Prince Albert.

Tonight's game is a 7:30 start. The pre-game show on CJOC at 7.