Canes' Host Kootenay Ice

Well, here we go....the final weekend of the WHL's regular season and there's a lot at stake for a few teams, including the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Kootenay Ice.

The Canes' still have a shot at 5th place. They must win their remaining 3 games this weekend and hope that Calgary beats Medicine Hat tomorrow in regulation time. If that works out, then 5th place it is. These two games versus Kootenay are huge for both teams. The Ice lead the Canes' by three points in the standings. A Kootenay win this evening in regulation would make it impossible for Lethbridge to go higher than 7th in the Eastern Conference. I'm sure for the Ice, they have the same plan in mind, to move into 5th place. It should be an exciting weekend nevertheless. The Hurricanes will be playing playoff-like hockey for sure and I wouldn't expect anything less from the Ice. Although Canes' can't control what happens tomorrow between the Tigers and Hitmen, the can take care of things themselves with this mini-series versus the Ice.

I'll give Kootenay some credit here. When they lost Dustin Sylvester with a season-ending injury and then traded away John Negrin and Michael Stickland to Swift Current at the trade deadline, I think a number of people expected the Ice to just fade away. The exact opposite has happened. In fact, I think at times Kootenay has been better since the deadline. This will be no walk in the park for Lethbridge, but I would expect some pretty high tempo hockey tonight and tomorrow in particular.

It's been a long time since these two teams have played. The last meeting was December 27th at the Enmax Centre with the Ice winning that game 6-1. Yes, it's been a while, more than two months to be exact! The Hurricanes are 2 and 2 in the season series so far. The two teams play again tomorrow in Cranbrook.

Before the game tonight, the Hurricanes will honour the memory of Michael Maniago. The Hurricanes will be presenting a cheque for the Michael Maniago Memorial Fund to Michael’s mother, Terri Maniago, prior to the start of tonight's game. Maniago passed away suddenly in late November in a car accident in Calgary.

I'm also pretty excited to be able to have a chance to work with Fred Jack as our new Colour Analyst on Hurricanes broadcasts. After trying out 3 other people for the job, Fred was hired by radio station management. Freddie has a hockey history with colour and play-by-play experience from the BCHL with Trail and coaching midget triple "A" hockey in Sherwood Park as well as running a hockey school there. He's also a local school teacher. He'll provide some good insight on both the game and the Hurricanes! Welcome aboard Freddie!

Ice Chips:
Also, Hurricanes forward Carter Ashton, who leads the team in goals scored this season is listed at number 19 on the TSN mid-season rankings. He's listed at number 28 by International Scouting and number 10 amongst North American skaters for the upcoming NHL draft this June. Possibly another Lethbridge Hurricane going in the first round?? It would be great to see!

Game time from the Enmax Centre tonight is 7 o'clock. The pre-game show on CJOC at 6:30.