Canes' Lose 8-5 to Portland

The Lethbridge Hurricanes are struggling to hit the win column here in the pre-season.

The Canes' lost 8-5 to Portland Saturday afternoon in Kennewick, WA. Lethbridge battled back from a 7-0 deficit in the 3rd period to make the game interesting. The loss drops the Hurricanes exhibition record to 0 and 5. Lethbridge was heavily outshot 58-22. They were, at one point Saturday being outshot 23-3. Ville Kolppanen played nets for the Hurricanes and by all reports he played well. I'd say so looking at the lop-sided shot total! Lethbridge wraps up the pre-season Sunday when they take on Tri-City.

Here's the game summary from Andy Kemper's blog, the radio voice of the Portland Winterhawks:

1st Period:
12:21 – P – Nino Niederreiter (Troy Rutkowski, Joe Morrow) — Rutkowski from the left point feeds Niederreiter down the right wing alone….a premier backhand to forehand move for the open net slam.
16:27 – P – Radim Valchar (Troy Rutkowski, Chris Francis) — Rutkowski from the left half-wall feeds Valchar between the hash marks for a one-time slapper under the arm of Kolponnen.
Penalties: 1:45 – L – Graham (Tripping); 4:44 – P – Bench (Too Many Men); 10:12 – L – Bench (Too Many Men)

2nd Period:
4:53 – P – Brad Ross (Unassisted) SH — Ross pokes the puck free for a two on one, uses Johansen as a decoy before roofing it high glove.
5:14 – P – Oliver Gabriel (Taylor Aronson, Colin Reddin) 4 on 4 — Aronson from the left point finds a cutting Gabriel in front of the net who slams it home.
8:00 – P – Nino Niederreiter (Troy Rutkowksi, Brad Ross) — Rutkowski finds Niederreiter alone behind the ‘d’ and he files a backhand high glove on the breakaway.
13:00 – P – Gasper Kopitar (Troy Rutkowski) — Kopitar from behind the goal line banks it home off a d-man’s skate.
17:22 – P – Colin Reddin (Oliver Gabriel, Tyler Wotherspoon) 5 on 3 PP — Gabriel on the cycle in the corner finds Reddin who roofs it from the bottom of the right faceoff circle.
Penalties: 4:24 – P – Watt (Hooking); 5: 06 – L – Kolppanen (Delay of Game); 5:48 – P – Wotherspoon (Hooking); 10:53 – L – Ryckman (Cross Check); 15:56 – L – Ryckman (Hooking); 15:56 – L – Graham (Roughing)

3rd Period:
5:02 – L – Max Ross (Craig Orfino, Nils Moser) PP — Ross’ shot hits Rutkowski and goes in off the post.
11:29 – L – Phillip Tot (Drew Graham) SH — Graham pokes it to Tot behind the defense and his shot barely slips through Hamilton and across the line.
15:16 – L – Brett Henke (Mark Reners, Garrett Taylor) PP — Reners shot hits high on the shoulder of Hamilton and it bounces over him and Henke taps it in.
16:14 – L – Garrett Taylor (Reid Jackson, Brett Henke) PP — Taylor wrists it home from the right faceoff circle through a crowd.
16:35 – L – Craig Orfino (??? no assists announced) — Orfino from a bad angle puts it in on the long side.
18:27 – P – Oliver Gabriel (Nino Niederreiter) — Gabriel on a breakaway fires a wrister low stick side.

Penalties: 1:38 – L – Henry (Tripping); 4:03 – P – Johansen (Interference); 6:04 – P – Kopitar (Boarding); 6:04 – P – Boychuk (Fighting); 6:04 – L – Castro (Instigating/Fighting/Game Misconduct); 6:11 – L – Orfino (Tripping); 10:59 – L – Sutter (Interference); 13:38 – P – Aronson (Cross Check); 15:42 – P – Reddin (Interference)

Shots:
Portland: 21 – 18 -19 — 58
Lethbridge: 3 – 6 – 13 — 22

Power Plays:
Portland: 1 for 8
Lethbridge: 3 for 6

Thanks,
Pat

Hurricanes Drop 4th Pre-season Tilt

The Lethbridge Hurricanes are still looking for their first win of the 2009 pre-season.

The hockey club lost a close one, 2-1 late Friday afternoon against the Everett Silvertips. The Canes' are playing in a mini-exhibition tournament in Kennewick, WA. They have two games remaining in pre-season play: Saturday afternoon versus Portland and then Sunday against Tri-City.

The loss to Everett drops the Hurricanes to 0-4 in the pre-season.

After this final tune-up, Lethbridge will return home to prepare for the start of the regular season next Friday in Cranbrook. It still isn't known if the Canes' will have all 6 players back from pro camps by the time September 18th rolls around, but I would expect the bulk of those players to be ready to go for the start of the season.

Despite the 4 exhibition losses, the Hurricanes haven't really played all that bad given their roster at the moment consists mainly of 15, 16, and a few 17 year olds. This young group has been able to keep the scores close. In all 4 games, Lethbridge found itself in penalty trouble, which ultimately proved to be the difference.

Next week, I would expect Head Coach and G.M. Rich Preston to finalize his regular season roster and again it will depend a lot on who is and who isn't back from NHL camps.

Here is the recap from Friday's game:

1st Period
No scoring

2nd Period
EVT - Josh Winquist 1 (Chris de la Lande, Paul Van de Velde), PPG, 3:31 LET - Cam Braes 1 (Craig Orfino), 5:53

3rd Period
EVT - Markus McCrea 1 (Ryan White, D. Jay McGrath), 16:18

Goaltending EVT: Luke Siemens, 60.00, 23/24 LET: Michael Tadjdeh, 59.08, 31/33


Thanks,
Pat

Canes' Deliver the Goods

To coincide with the release of their new Reebok Edge Uniforms for the 2009-10 season the Lethbridge Hurricanes are continuing their push with the “Your Community. Your Team.” Campaign. Hurricanes Business Manager Geoff Stewart along with Hurricanes Communications and Events Coordinator Ryan Ohashi will be out and about Friday, September 11, 2009 delivering some of these brand new Hurricanes Jerseys to various non profit groups across the city.

“We wanted to launch the new jersey with something unique and in this case we will be donating one of the new jerseys to several non profit groups around town for use in their fundraising” said Ohashi, who also handles all of the team’s Community relations “It matches up very well with the “Your Community. Your Team” theme and we just wanted to thank some of the unsung heroes in our community with this small gesture”

Along with each jersey, the Canes will be including a six game voucher pack to each of the non profit groups.

“We are donating the tickets and the jerseys to these groups for their use whichever way they see fit. Whether it be fundraising, an auction or raffle or just as a way to reward their volunteers.” said Stewart adding “This is all something as a team we are very proud to be able to do for just a few of the people who really make a difference in our community.”

For more information or for a delivery schedule, please contact Ryan Ohashi, Lethbridge Hurricanes Communications and Events Coordinator at rohashi@lethbridgehurricanes.com

Hurricanes This Week: First Show Monday

As we prepare for the start of the new hockey season at CJOC, 94.1 The Lounge, part of those preparations include our weekly Monday night talk show "Hurricanes This Week".

The talk show is now into it's 3rd season and I think has grown in popularity. This season we have a few changes for the talk show. The first being the time. The show will now be held Monday nights starting at 6pm. We have decided to move the time an hour earlier than in the past to better fit with our format at The Lounge, so please join us for the first one hour show, set for Monday, September 14th. This season we begin with our Hurricanes Media Panel. Joining me in studio will be our Colour Analyst on Hurricanes broadcasts this year, Fred Jack along with Paul Kingsmith from Global Sports and Dylan Purcell, Sports Editor at the Lethbridge Herald. As you can imagine, there is a lot to talk about as it was a very interesting off-season for the Canes'. As always, you can e-mail your comments and questions to us Monday evening at: hurricanes@pttwireless.ca

This year we will be taking e-mail questions and comments only on both the talk show and hockey broadcast and we ask that if you would like your question addressed, that you please sign your e-mail. No anonymous e-mails will get read on the air. Please sign it. No last names are needed, just a first name or some type of handle is fine. Some of these changes are coming as the result of you the fan and listener. Your feedback has helped a lot in shaping our talk show and the broadcast. So thanks!

Throughout the course of the season, we hope to have some interesting guests on the show. My play-by-play colleagues from around WHL will be on from time to time to give us their take on what's going on around the league as well Hurricanes players, coaches, and staff.

Also in the works, is the possibility of holding one talk show each month at a local establishment in Lethbridge. I'll have more on that once things get finalized, but it should be exciting to take the show on the road so to speak once a month.

Our first hockey broadcast of the year will be Friday, September 18th from Cranbrook as the Canes' open the season on the road against the Kootenay Ice.

It should be a fun season and as always, Fred and I are looking forward to your e-mail comments and questions!

Talk to you Monday night at 6!

Thanks,
Pat

Canes' Lose 3rd Straight in Exhibition

The Lethbridge Hurricanes played well, but just couldn't hang on losing a 5-4 game in a shootout in Cranbrook Wednesday night.

Lethbridge played fairly well given the team's young line-up as most of the big guns are away at pro camps. Like the previous two pre-season games, the Canes' started out strong, but penalty trouble proved to be the difference. The Hurricanes are now 0-3 in exhibition play this season. The team heads south to Washington State when it will play in a pre-season mini tournament against Tri-City, Everett, and Portland this weekend. After that, the Canes' return home to Lethbridge to get ready for the regular season which opens next Friday, September 18th in Cranbrook against the Kootenay Ice.

Here's a recap of Wednesday's game:

1st period
ICE - 13:11 - Antilla - PP Hurricanes - 5:59 - Tarnasky - PP

2nd period
Hurricanes - :59 - Jackson ICE - 2:26 - Boomer - PP ICE - 13:49 - Montgomery

3rd period
Hurricanes - :37 - Taylor Hurricanes - 11:14 - Moser ICE - 15:15 - Ismond

ShootoutRound 1 - Hurricanes - Braes - No Goal ICE - Pacovsky - No Goal Hurricanes - Moser - No Goal ICE - Fraser - Goal Hurricanes - Reners - No Goal

SavesICE - Lieuwen - 7; Tait - 11 Hurricanes - Anderson - 18

Canes' Have New Look!

The Lethbridge Hurricanes unveiled their new look at Adams Ice Centre today. The Reebok Edge Jersey is what every team in the CHL will wear from now on. The jerseys are said to be lighter in weight and cooler and drier for the players to wear. As you can tell, The Canes' have dropped the swirl in the logo and just used the Lethbridge Hurricanes lettering style from the previous design and incoporated it as their new logo. On the sleeves are red, white, and blue stars. Hurricanes Communications Director Ryan Ohashi told me he thinks the fans will really like the Canes' new look. He says the team has wanted to revamp the logo for a while, but it's not something that just happens over night. Ohashi says the new look is clean and streamlined.

Cam Braes and Max Ross modelled the new duds for the media at Adams Ice Centre.

As Hurricanes fans know, this is the 3rd logo change for the team since about 1997. Before the swirl was logo was the Tasmanian Devil logo back in the late 90's. What do you think?

Thanks,
Pat

Canes' Sign Two More Prospects

The Lethbridge Hurricanes preseason marches on this week and two more players were added to the Canes stable. Lethbridge Hurricanes General Manager and Head Coach Rich Preston was very proud to announce this afternoon that the hockey club has signed 93-born defenseman and Southern Alberta product; Brandyn Hulit, along with speedy 94-born forward Mitchell Guiel.

Hulit was the Hurricanes fourth round pick and the 84th overall pick of the 2008 Western Hockey League Bantam Draft. a southern Alberta native of Coutts, played in town last season on the blue line of the Lethbridge Midget AAA Hurricanes of the SAML. He is a 6’2” 175 pound defenseman who in his draft year tallied 19 points (3G, 16A) and 24 penalty minutes in 33 games with the Lethbridge Val Matteotti Golden Hawks of the Alberta Major Bantam Hockey League (AMBHL).

Guiel was the Hurricanes fifth selection – 103rd overall of the 2009 WHL Bantam Draft. The Hurricanes acquired this pick from Everett as a result of the trade with the Silver Tips involving defenseman Mike Alexander. The speedy skilled forward posted 84 points (41G, 43A) in 40 games (including tournament play) with the Langley Bantam AAA Eagles in 2009-10 and contributed to the host team Eagles’ silver medal finish in the B.C. Bantam 'AAA' provincials.
These players bring the Canes total to eight newly signed players for the 2009-10 season including – 92-born forward Neal Tarnasky, 93-born defensemen Reid Jackson and Drew Graham, 93-born forward Michael Sofillas and 94-born Ryley Bennefield and Adam Henry.

Information from Ryan Ohashi, Hurricanes Director of Communcations

Hurricanes to Unveil "New Look"

The Lethbridge Hurricanes Hockey club will be unveiling their new Reebok Edge Uniforms for the 2009-10 season tomorrow at Adams Ice Centre. This is scheduled to coincide with the WHL and CHL launch of the Reebok Edge Jersey designs. Hurricanes players will be modeling the Hurricanes new look in its entirety on ice! The Lethbridge Hurricanes will also be making a very special community announcement regarding the “Your Community. Your Team.” Campaign.

Immediately following the photo opportunity, The Canes will pack up and make the trip through the rockies to take on the Kootenay Ice on September 9th in Cranbrook before heading south for a preseason tournament in Kennewick, WA on the weekend of September 11th. Due to renovations to the City of Lethbridge ENMAX Centre; the canes will not host any games during the 08-09 preseason and will not hold their home opener until an October 9th matchup against Edmonton Oil Kings.

For more information on renewing existing tickets or on becoming a Season Ticket Holder; fans are encouraged to visit or contact the ENMAX Centre Ticket Office or the Yates Theatre Centre by calling (403) 329-SEAT.

Information provided by Ryan Ohashi, Hurricanes Director of Communications

Thanks,
Pat

Hockey News Ranks WHL Jerseys

The Hockey News has come out with WHL jersey rankings.

It puts the Hurricanes jersey (the one they've been using for the past few years) at number 18 out of 22 teams in the league. The WHL will unveil it's new style jersey on opening night in just over a week and as I understand it, a couple of teams including Lethbridge have made some tweaks to their logos and jerseys because of the new styles. We won't get a look at those until the new season officially kicks off.

Here is the link to the Hockey News Rankings:
http://www.thehockeynews.com/articles/27574-The-Hockey-News-WHL-Jersey-Rankings.html

Thanks,
Pat

Hurricanes Lose 2nd Pre-season Game

The Hurricanes lost 5-3 to the Kootenay Ice Sunday afternoon in the Crowsnest Pass.
Lethbridge got goals from Brent Henke, Phillip Tot, and Max Ross. The Canes' played with a very young line-up Sunday with 6 players off to NHL Camps. Michael Tadjdeh played the entire game in goal for the Hurricanes and faced 56 shots. Lethbridge plays Kootenay again this week, this time in Cranbrook on Wednesday night.

Here's the breakdown of Sunday's game played in Coleman:

1st Period
1. Lethbridge Brent Henke, 2:01 2. Lethbridge Max Ross, 13:56 PP

2nd Period 3. Kootenay Domenic Pacovsky, 5:18 PP 4. Kootenay Brendan Hurley, 7:50 5. Kootenay Tyler Vanscourt, 13:09 6. Lethbridge Phillip Tot, 13:44

3rd Period 7. Kootenay Brendan Hurley, 8:49 8. Kootenay Jody Leach, 17:04

Goaltenders Kootenay: Todd Matthews, Mackenzie Skapski 29/32 Lethbridge: Michael Tadjdeh 51/56

Thanks,
Pat