Canes' Host Tigers Tonight

The rivalry resumes tonight as the Lethbridge Hurricanes host the Medicine Hat Tigers.

This is the front end of a home-and-away series between the two teams. The re-match is tomorrow in the Hat (7:30pm). These will be the last two times the Canes' and Tigers play in the 08-09 regular season and there still is a chance the clubs could meet up in the playoffs in a few weeks time.

This is a big weekend for both teams no matter how you approach it. Medicine Hat leads Lethbridge by 4 points in the Eastern Conference standings. The Canes' have 12 games to go, while the Tigers have 11. The Hurricanes will tie the Tigers in points if they win both games outright in regulation, while Medicine Hat can put an 8 point buffer between themselves and the Canes'. For both teams, winning these two games in regulation is no doubt the key and will go a long way to deciding which teams finishes ahead of the other.

Of course the last meeting brought fireworks at the end in a 7-5 Lethbridge win at the Enmax Centre January 21st. A line brawl in the final minute resulted in a number of suspensions levied by the WHL. I don't know if any of that will spill over into this weekend, given the excitement at the end of the last game a month ago. I'm sure it will be exciting and entertaining no matter what.

The Hurricanes have 5 wins in their past 10 games, while the Tigers have only 3 victories in their last 10 hockey games. Medicine Hat has given up a lot of goals against since they were last in Lethbridge. Keeping the puck out of the net has been one of the challenges for the Tigers in recent weeks and something I'm sure they'd like to fine tune going into the post-season. For the Hurricanes, a focus on being consistent in the final games is likely something they're focusing on. Lethbridge plays it's next 5 games on the road after tonight.

Tonight's game is a 7 o'clock start. The pre-game show on CJOC at 6:30. Tonight in the broadcast booth I'll be joined by former WHL official Cory McLean. Cory just retired from refereeing 6 months ago and is looking at getting into the broadcast side of hockey. He'll provide the colour tonight. Should be an interesting perspective for sure!