Canes' Beat Tigers 3-2 in Overtime

A big come-from-behind victory for the Lethbridge Hurricanes last night.

Not a good start to this game for the Hurricanes though. The Tigers scored twice in the first 6 minutes to take a quick 2-0 lead on the home town Canes'. Medicine Hat was buzzing from the drop of the puck and out shot Lethbridge 10-3 in the first. The Tigers got goals from Matt McKay and hot shot rookie Emerson Etem. The Hurricanes though really settled things down after that.

A much better second for the Canes'. nThey came out of the gate with a lot more jump and were rewarded for their efforts. Austin Fyten fired a shot over the glove hand of Tyler Bunz to cut the Tigers lead to 2-1. It was Fyten's 13th goal of the season. Lethbridge had some very good chances in the second, but also got into some penalty trouble late. The Tigers had back-to-back 5 on 3 power plays, which the Hurricanes managed to kill off to keep it a one goal contest after 40 minutes.

In the 3rd, the Hurricanes began to pour it on and eventually tied the game at 2 when Mark Reners stole a lose puck behind the Medicine Hat net and tucked it behind a surprised Tyler Bunz for his 3rd goal of the season. The Canes' had the Tigers running around in the 3rd and out shot Medicine Hat 13-10 in that final period heading into overtime. The shots through regulation were 32-26 Tigers. In the O.T. it was wide open, end to end action. Both teams had some excellent chances, but Mitch Maxwell would finish off the big comeback with a wrist shot that beat Tigers goaltender Tyler Bunz over the glove with just over a minute to go to send the Exmax Centre crowd into a frenzy and give the Canes' a huge 3-2 victory. It's the Hurricanes second win in a row and a very positive note to end off 2009.

Overall, this was a pretty entertaining hockey game and yet another one goal contest for the Lethbridge Hurricanes, their 18th one goal game this season. 7 have been wins. A very good crowd last night too. 3991 was the official attendance at the Enmax Centre and was one of the largest crowds of the season for the Hurricanes. The crowd was right into this game, no more so when Maxwell scored the winner in overtime. It was truly an entertaining hockey game no matter what team you cheered for. It was a great game to watch and had a little bit of everything for the fans. The three stars were: 1. Austin Fyten 2. Matt McKay 3. Brandon Anderson

A Chat with the G.M.
Before the game last night I asked Head Coach and GM Rich Preston about the team's goaltending situation. With Linden Rowat set to return, that leaves the Canes' with three netminders. Preston said those are the decisions you like as a coach. He noted that Brandon Anderson has played very well for the team ever since Rowat went down with injury nearly two months ago. He says he's been hot and cold, but for the most part has given the Hurricanes a chance to win almost every game he's played. Preston says getting Rowat back is huge and having three goalies is a good situation for this team to be in right now. He says whoever is stopping the puck the best, is going to play. I also asked Preston about the upcoming trade deadline on January 10th. I asked him if his phone is still ringing. He stopped, smiled, chuckled and said, "when it's on, it's ringing! Let's put it that way."

The Hurricanes are now off until Saturday when they host the struggling Regina Pats. It'll be the first game of 2010 for Lethbridge. After that, the Canes' will hit the road for 5 straight over the next week and half in Saskatchewan and Manitoba. They'll make a stop first on Sunday to play the Hitmen at the Saddledome in Calgary.


Thanks,
Pat