The Lethbridge Hurricanes hit the bus again today for a trip up to Edmonton to take on the Oil Kings.
This will be only the second meeting of the season between the two teams. The Hurricanes won the first match way back in early October at the Enmax Centre, in what was the Canes' home opener.
Both teams have been struggling this season and currently take up the last two spots in the Eastern Conference. The Oil Kings are 10-20-4-4 in 38 games while the Hurricanes are 10-21-3-1 in 35 games. This match-up tonight will mark the official halfway point in the season for Lethbridge.
Edmonton is a team that most people in the league, and likely the Oil Kings themselves thought would be fighting for a playoff spot right now. They started out not too bad in the early part of the season, but like the Hurricanes have run into some rough spots. The Oil Kings might be one of the surprise teams in the WHL to be honest with you, but for all the wrong reasons. I certainly expected and so did a lot of other people that after getting into the playoffs last year that Edmonton would be more of a force this season. There is still lots of hockey to be played this year, but both Edmonton and Lethbridge have a lot of ground to make up .
The Canes' 1-0 loss in Red Deer on Sunday was their 16th game decided by one goal this season. 11 of those one goal decisions have been losses for Lethbridge. The Hurricanes continue to have issues scoring. That's been more of a concern I think for the coaches than keeping the puck out. We'll see what happens tonight. The Hurricanes have 3 games in hand on Edmonton after tonight's game at Rexall Place. This, I think is a must win game for Lethbridge if they want to catch teams like the Oil Kings. This is also a very busy stretch of hockey for Lethbridge. The team plays 7 games in the next 12 days.
Tonight's game from Edmonton is a 7 o'clock start (MT). The pre-game show on CJOC at 6:30.
Thanks,
Pat
The views expressed on this blog are those of the moderator and contributors and are not endorsed by 94.1 CJOC or the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
Didn't see the Oil/Canes game, but nice to see the outcome!
ReplyDeleteAttaboy Henke!! you ARE still on the team... good to see.
PS - How did Fyten do in his fight?
Bancks, hero again! Only goal in the shootout, priceless.
PS - The scorers game sheet lists all three goaltenders (including Rowat) were dressed... is it true?
If I see B&W #77 get on the ice at the Enmax centre against the Tigers Wednesday, I'm walking out and asking for my money back. I don't think that I can stand to watch another episode of "Look At Me, I'm Savage-C" - Richie.
Fyten didn't fair too well in the fight. He laid a hit on Nichol that the Edmonton player didn't like too much. He didn't expect to go with Nicol who got some solid shots in on that scrap. Nichol kind of jumped Fyten on that one I thought. Rowat was not in the line-up in Edmonton. It must have been an error on the sheet.
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