Canes' Host Prince Albert 7pm

The Lethbridge Hurricanes play their only game over the course of the next week and half tonight when they host the Prince Albert Raiders.

The Canes' are trying to end a slide that has seen the team lose 3 straight, including a 3-2 loss in overtime to the Kootenay Ice on Sunday night. Head Coach/GM Rich Preston was on Hurricanes This Week Monday. He told Fred and I these next 10 games leading up to Christmas are important. He also wants to see his team establish "that killer instinct on home ice".

Lethbridge is 4-4-2-0 in it's last 10 games, most of those have been by one goal. On the positive side of things, the Hurricanes have been in every game besides for the first 4 or 5 games to start the season when they were on wrong side of a few very lop-sided scores. Preston also indicted that the Canes' have to stop the cycle of lose 3 here and win 2 or 3 there. He wants to see more consistent hockey heading into the Christmas break.

The P.A. Raiders make their first visit to Lethbridge this season. The Raiders are a much better team than I think a lot of people expected. They've been hovering around the .500 mark for pretty much the whole season. P.A. played last night in Cranbrook and lost 4-3 in overtime to the Ice. The Raiders are a team which has been having trouble putting butts in the seats at the Art Hauser Centre in Prince Albert. They had one of the lowest attendance numbers in all of the CHL last season. That community-owned team lost more the $90,000 last year alone. The Canes' will play the Raiders again in Prince Albert next weekend.

The Numbers (Ryan Ohashi)

Captain Carter Bancks continues to lead the team with 26 points (8G, 18A) while Carter Ashton saw his nine game point streak come to an end on Sunday totaling 14 points (5G, 9A) during that span. But the story remains the performance of the Canes rookies as WHL rookie Mitch Maxwell leads all Canes rookies with 18 points (13G, 5A) in 22 games and just came off a five game goal streak; the longest this season in the WHL. His 13 goals lead all Canes scorers and are good for second in the WHL rookie goal scoring race. Rookie goaltender Brandon Anderson, posted an impressive 44 save performance in Sunday’s loss and rookie d-man Landon Oslanski currently leads the team with a plus-5 +/- rating.

Tonight's game is a 7 o'clock start. The pre-game show on CJOC at 6:30.

Thanks,

Pat