Canes' Come back to Beat Warriors

Three straight goals in the third period pushed the Lethbridge Hurricanes to a big 5-4 come-from-behind victory over the Moose Jaw Warriors last night at the Enmax Centre.

Things were looking a little bleak as the Canes' were down 4-3 after 40 minutes, especially after battling back twice to tie the game. They somehow manage to retool, rally in the final 20 and get the two points. The Canes' were down 1-0 after one, but Linden Rowat was great in goal in the first to keep it a one goal contest. The Warriors had numerous chances in the first and had it not been for Rowat, Moose Jaw could've easily been up 3 or 4 nothing.

The game changed in the second period. The Canes' had just tied things at two on a power play goal by Carter Ashton and shortly after, Lethbridge went back on the man advantage, but a bad give-away by Cam Braes in his own zone cost the team a short-handed goal against. The Warriors would score one more not too long after to take a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes. The Hurricanes have now given up 5 short-handed goals this season. That ties them with Red Deer for the most shorties against. Those are the little things that I've been talking about lately that the Hurricanes need to pay closer attention too.

In the third though, the Hurricanes made some big adjustments and came out flying, scoring 3 unanswered goals, erasing a two goal deficit and winning 5-4. They also put an end to a 3 game losing skid. A great third period comeback by Lethbridge and a huge two points. For the first time this year, the Canes' are out of the basement in the Eastern Conference.

On this night, the Hurricanes leaders were truly their leaders. Captain Carter Bancks was the game's first star, scored once, and was maybe the best player on the ice for either team. He had a pretty good supporting cast too. Carter Ashton scored twice. Austin Fyten and Mitch Maxwell got the others. This is the way this team is going to have to play to be successful. It was simply a great effort. They outplayed the Warriors in the third to win it and being outplayed for half the game before.

Sbisa Coming Back

Big news for the Hurricanes before last night's game even started. Defenceman Luca Sbisa was reassigned by the NHL's Anaheim Ducks, meaning he'll be returning to Lethbridge and his junior team. This is fantastic news for the Canes.' I know a lot of people were a bit skeptical when the team chose to select only one Euro in the import draft this past spring and held on to Sbisa's rights. Most fans thought there wouldn't be a chance he'd ever be coming back to the Hurricanes, me included. I guess the message here is simple. Hold on to your assets, because you just never know what will happen. With this, the Hurricanes will have three Euros on their roster: Sbisa, Valchar, and Kolppanen. One of those players will have to be let go since each WHL team is allowed no more than 2 imports on the roster at one time. Valchar was scratched for the Canes' last night.

Hurricanes This Week

Fred and I will be back on the air tonight at 6 o'clock with the latest edition of Hurricanes This Week, our weekly Canes' Talk Show. On the program tonight we are back in studio after taking the show on the road to the Shark Club last week. We'll be there again live on-location next Monday, November 2nd, but this evening Head Coach/GM Rich Preston will be on with us off the top. I'm sure we'll talk a lot about the whole Sbisa thing. We'll also talk with Gregg Drinnan from the Kamloops Daily News and in the last segment of the show, we'll got to Medicine Hat and speak with the long-time radio voice of the Tigers, Bob Ridley. Any comments or questions can be emailed to hurricanes@pttwireless.ca.

Thanks,
Pat