Hurricanes Beat Oil Kings 4-1

The Hurricanes ended a 3 game losing skid last night with a 4-1 victory over the Edmonton Oil Kings.

Another pretty good start to a hockey game for the Hurricanes in this one. The Canes' played well in the first period and scored the only goal in the opening frame when Mark Reners beat Torrie Jung off a nice pass to the goal mouth by Brody Sutter. It was overall a very good opening 20 minutes as the Hurricanes out shot Edmonton 16-8. The Oil Kings had a few good chances as well, but Brandon Anderson was solid in goal in his first game in almost two weeks. He missed a few games after a slight head injury in practice a week or so ago.

In the second, the Oil Kings ramped things up and outplayed the Hurricanes for the better part of the period, but it was the Hurricanes who scored the only goal. It remained 1-0 Canes' until the final minute of the period when Graham Hood scored off a pass from Cam Braes with under 40 seconds left in the second. For Hood, he's now scored 12 goals on the season, 7 since being acquired by Lethbridge in December from Regina. The Hurricanes had the edge in shots after two, 22-13. To this point in the game, not one single penalty was called by either of the two officials Curtis Howe or T.J. Luxmore (OHL).

In the third, the Canes' thought they had gone up 3-0 when Jacob Berglund put the puck passed Jung, but after the referees got together for a chat the goal was disallowed as it was kicked in off the skate of Berglund. No question the correct call. Lethbridge did get that back though when Cam Braes scored late to make it 3-0. It looked like maybe Brandon Anderson would get his first shut out of the season, but with just over 2 minutes to go in the game the Oil Kings scored to make it 3-1. Edmonton pulled the goalie in the final minute, but Jacob Berglund would score into an empty net to ice the game for the home side. Final score: 4-1 Lethbridge. There were only two power plays in this game. Edmonton had both in the 3rd period and went 0-2 on the night. The Hurricanes didn't have a power play at all. A very disciplined game really by both teams and a pretty easy night for the referees. The loss for Edmonton is that team's 12th in a row. The final shots favoured he Hurricanes 32-26.

Preston on Goaltending

I asked Head Coach/GM Rich Preston about the team's goaltending situation with three goalies: Anderson, Rowat, and Kolppanen on the roster. Kolppnanen hasn't seen game action in a number of weeks (Dec. 18 vs. Kootenay) and has backed up only twice since coming back from the Christmas break. Preston says, "It's a tough situation for Ville. I've talked to the goalies and I told them Rowat you're one, Anderson you're two, and Ville you're three and that's the way it is. That's the way it going to be. I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow. Its just day to day. You never know what's going to happen. Knock on wood, we've been pretty good with injuries lately in that position. Back in October Anderson went from number three to number one in a span of a week".

Next Up

The Hurricanes will head to Calgary tomorrow to take on the Hitmen for the 4th time this month. It's an early afternoon start at the Saddledome. Game time is 2pm (MT). The pre-game show on CJOC at 1:30.

Thanks,
Pat