Hurricanes @ Seattle Tonight

(Image of the new ShoWare in Kent, WA from the broadcast booth. Sorry for the late photos.)

Tonight will be the first and only meeting this season between the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Seattle Thunderbirds.

The Canes' had a good day off yesterday, practiced at the Comcast Arena in Everett, WA and toured the Boeing Assembly Plant in the afternoon. What a experience that was! The hangers they build those planes in are so large they can fit 800 NHL sized ice sheets into one building! Amazing! Today, though it's back down to business. Lethbridge will now play 3 games in the next 3 days as they continue to make a push in the Eastern Conference standings. The Hurricanes have 17 games to go in the regular season and will have to keep a good pace down the stretch if they want to slip into the top 4 in the Eastern Conference.

The Hurricanes will have Carter Bancks back tonight. He missed Wednesday's game in Portland due a family funeral. As it stands now, Eric Mestery is the only scratch for the Hurricanes because of injury. He's feeling better, but still not given the green light to play. Other than that, Lethbridge is as healthy now that at any other point this season.

The Canes' will have to get off to a much better start in this game tonight. It was a slow first 40 minutes in Portland in which Lethbridge generated just 10 shots in the first two periods. They need to come out with more jump and set the tempo and make the T-birds play with them.

Lethbridge is 4 games above .500 and have won their past two games going into this one in Kent, WA, the new home of the Seattle Thunderbirds. The T-birds are 3-games below .500 and sit in 7th place in the Western Conference. They're led by Greg Scott and Prab Rai who have 45 points each. Defensively the Hurricanes will have to keep a close watch on Thomas Hickey, the captain of Team Canada's Gold Medal winning junior team.

Tonight's game is a later start. The pre-game show on CJOC at 8pm (Alberta Time). The puck drops at 8:30.