Canes' Lose 3-2 in Shootout at P.A.

Two goals by the Prince Albert Raiders in the 3rd period broke open a scoreless tie as the Raiders held on to beat the Lethbridge Hurricanes 3-2 last night in a shootout.

Not much offence in the first period of last night's game. In fact, the Canes' and Raiders played to a scoreless tie. Lethbridge had the best chances I thought in the opening 20 minutes. Prince Albert's goaltender Garrett Zemlak came up with a couple of good stops to prevent the Canes' from taking the lead. Lethbridge out shot the Raiders 13-8 in that opening frame. The Hurricanes had 3 power plays in the first period too, but again they were unable to score.

In the second, the Raiders came back gunning, but still unable to break the scoreless tie. Prince Albert out shot the Canes' 18-9 in the period, but this time it was Linden Rowat who stole show between the pipes to keep the Hurricanes in it. He had to make a number of big saves to help preserve the scoreless tie. Up to this point it was a pretty entertaining, wide open game that had very few stoppages in play. Lots of end to end hockey.

In the third, the Raiders finally broke the scoreless tie near the midway point of the period and it was the first of 4 goals between the two teams before the end of regulation. Shortly after Prince Albert scored on the power play to take 2-0 lead, but que the Lethbridge comeback in this one. Down a pair of goals with less than 10 minutes to go, Graham Hood scored a nice goal batting the puck behind Zemlak to give the Hurricanes their first on the night. Late in the period with the Raiders pressing, the Canes' got control of the puck, pulled the goalie and with 29 seconds to go, Hood scored his second of the night to even the score at 2 and send the game into overtime.

Extra time would settle nothing in this one. In the shootout, the Raiders would score the lone goal and take the game 3-2 ending what was a 5 game losing streak for P.A. Certainly a tough loss for Lethbridge, but a good comeback nevertheless. As I said earlier, this was a wide open game and the shots indicated that. The Raiders out shot the Hurricanes 41-34. Both goaltenders, Rowat and Zemlak played well and received game stars for the efforts. Graham Hood was the 3rd star. The loss drops the Hurricanes record to 13-23-3-1 in 42 games this season.

Trade Deadline on Sunday

Will the Hurricanes trade or keep Luca Sbisa? Well that's the question a lot of fans and media types around the WHL are wondering. Check this out from Gregg Drinnan's blog. "There is one veteran defenceman who no doubt is available. But will anyone pay a price?
D Luca Sbisa of the Lethbridge Hurricanes almost definitely will be on the move. Or, at least, the WHL playing rights to Sbisa likely will be on the move.
Sbisa, 19, played for Switzerland in the early portion of the World Junior Championship, during which he also was named to that country’s Olympic team. But early in the WJC he suffered an abdominal injury of some sort. He reportedly flew back to Switzerland over the weekend where he was to be examined by Olympic team doctors.
I spoke with two WHL general managers and asked both of them the same question: If you are the GM of a contending team, would you trade for Sbisa even though you don’t know the extent of the injury and even if you might only get him for the last two weeks of the regular season and the playoffs?
Both gentlemen replied unequivocally: “YES!”
There was no hesitation from either GM.
One of them went so far as to say that if he felt Sbisa would put his team over the top, he would give up a first-round bantam draft pick.
When Sunday evening arrives, however, there may well be only one winner."

If you want to read more trade stuff from Gregg, visit his blog on the right!


Injury Update

The Hurricanes got a bit of good news on the injury front before last night's game. Forward Austin Fyten was cleared to play after missing a couple of games with a hip problem. Head Coach/GM Rich Preston had planned to call up prospect Taylor Balog if Fyten was unable to play. As for the others, Mike Reddington is still day-to-day with a groin. He may get the call in Saskatoon this evening. That might be a game time decision. Derek Ryckman is done for the season with a shoulder injury that he suffered in a fight in Kootenay before the Christmas break. Max Ross is done for the year with a broken leg. Neither Ross nor Ryckman made the trip.

Next Up

The Hurricanes next game is tonight in Saskatoon. It'll be the last on this road trip and the first for the Blades since the World Juniors ended in Saskatoon a few days ago. They've been on the road the past couple of weeks. Game tonight from the Credit Union Centre is 6pm (MT). The pre-game show on CJOC at 5:30.

Thanks,
Pat