Canes' Blank Blazers....Rebels Tonight

(Juha Metsola right recorded his 5th shutout of the year last night)


A solid effort by the Hurricanes last night in front of just under 5000 fans at the Enmax Centre.

Lethbridge battled with the Kamloops Blazers for the 3rd and final time this season. The Canes' came away with a 2-0 victory. Kamloops started out with a fair bit of jump in the first 3 to 5 minutes, but after that the Hurricanes kind of took control of the game. Carter Bancks, the game's first star scored with 9 seconds to go in the first period to give Lethbridge a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes of play. In the second, the score would stay the same until late in that period, when Captain Ben Wright on the power play would wire a point shot low along the ice beating Blazers goaltender Justin LeClerc to give the home side a 2-0 lead heading into the 3rd. There was no scoring in the final frame as the Hurricanes would go on to win 2-0. Juha Metsola recorded his 5th shutout of the season in goal for the Canes'. Lethbridge out shot Kamloops 33-18.

I thought the Hurricanes did a very good job by limiting the Blazers scoring chances last night as well. They were also very disciplined and stayed out of the box. Kamloops only had 2 power plays to work with all night long. It was also a physical affair too. A number of big hits were thrown, a couple by Luca Sbisa, who played his first game back in front of the home town fans since being re-assigned from the Philadelphia Flyers just over a week ago.

The win helped Lethbridge keep pace with Medicine Hat and Swift Current, which also won last night as the battle for playoff positioning continues. The Canes' did make up some ground on Kootenay as the Ice lost 2-1 in Red Deer. Lethbridge jumps a point over the Ice and into 6th place in the Eastern standings.

Zach Boychuk was the energy player last night. He was our Hardest Working Hurricane and very much deserving of that honour. He's played well since his return to the line-up after an ankle injury. If this Lethbridge team plays down the stretch as hard as it did last night, this team should be hitting it's stride going into the post-season. As much as wins are important, as I've said before getting better and getting that cohesiveness as a team in the final weeks of the season is equally key to success.

Tonight the Canes' will host the Red Deer Rebels. Lethbridge holds the edge in the season series. The Canes' have shutout the Rebels 3 out of the 4 meetings so far. The two clubs will meet in Lethbridge one final time in early March. Game time tonight is 7 o'clock. The pre-game show on CJOC at 6:30.

Tonight Jordan Karst will provide colour on the broadcast. Jordan is our producer at CJOC and has followed the WHL for last number of years and has been in broadcasting for the past few years. He's also a product of Lethbridge College's Broadcast and Communications Program.