Canes' Back Home After Back-to-Back Wins

Well let me say it is certainly nice to be home after a week away and a lot of travel.

We arrived back in Lethbridge around 10am Sunday after an all night trip from Prince George, but these long rides are much easy to handle after a win or two! Sorry for the lateness of the blog post here, but not the best reception trying to accesss the internet through the mountains.

Anyway, after being on the losing side of a few lop-sided scores over the past few games, the Lethbridge Hurricanes found themselves on the winning side of a lop-sided score Saturday night in Prince George.

The Hurricanes offence busted open for 9 goals, including 5 in the second period en route to a more than convincing 9-2 win. It was a game of firsts for this Hurricanes team on a few fronts. Mark Reners and Phillip Tot scored their first goals of the season, Cam Braes scored his first hatrick of the year, and Ville Kolppanen recorded his first ever WHL win. It was a great way to end 8 games on the road to start the season for these young men. It’s taken a lot longer for things to come together for Rich Preston’s crew, but finally something positive for this group to come back home to. Brent Henke had a good game too with a goal and two assists and Carter Ashton scored twice.

The Hurricanes improved their record to 2 and 6 on the season and now have 5 days to get ready for their home opener Friday night against the Edmonton Oil Kings at the Enmax Centre. I can tell you this team is anxious and excited to play at home for a change. This has been a long start to the season, but at least this road trip ended on a good note. The Canes’ will use the next few days here to get ready for two games on the weekend. A chance to heal any bumps and bruises.

The Hurricanes have put on a lot of kilometres early this season, but now with games at the Enmax Centre, it’ll be a chance for the Canes’ to make some hay at home. They play the next three games on home ice before heading out to Manitoba and Saskatchewan in mid-October before settling in back in Lethbridge for a long stretch of home games until the Christmas break.
This young team I think has learned a lot over the past three weeks. I feel everyone has had a chance to get to know each other and maybe all these games on the road have actually been a good thing. They’ve managed to get better after losing and improve on their mistakes. The Canes’ were able to get better every game on this B.C. road swing and that’s something else positive for this team to take to the bank.

They still have a long way to come in my opinion, but we’re seeing signs of a maturing team. Winning can be contagious and the team is hoping these last two victories will follow them home. I know for a fact that the fans back in Lethbridge and area are chomping at bit to watch this team at home. Hopefully we’ll see good crowds for these three home games over the next week and a half.

One thing I’ve noticed and I’ve mentioned a few times on the broadcast is this year’s edition of the Lethbridge Hurricanes is much more aggressive than last year. This team has been playing with an edge and at times, with a chip on their shoulder. I think Hurricanes fans are going to really like this team when they see them on Friday night. It’s a different team under new leadership. They play a different style of hockey too. Rich Preston is slowly turning things around.

Don’t forget tomorrow Hurricanes This Week is back on the air on CJOC at 6pm. I’ll run down the guest list Monday morning here on the blog. Fred Jack will be back in the chair beside me tomorrow too. As always, you can send your comments and questions to hurricanes@pttwireless.ca.

Thanks,
Pat