LETHBRIDGE - The Lethbridge Hurricanes playoff hopes ended Friday night with a 5-3 loss to the Kootenay ICE at the ENMAX Centre.
After the Hurricanes gave out their annual player awards, the Canes' would get things going in this game, courtesy of their leading scorer. Cam Braes put home his 31st of the season, scoring against Kootenay's rookie goalie Mackenzie Skapski to give Lethbridge a 1-0 lead. The ICE would get that one back a few minutes later on a power play. Steele Boomer cashed in a rebound by Brandon Anderson and that evened the score at 1-1. Anderson made his 17th consecutive start in goal for Lethbridge in this game. The ICE would take their first lead of night with a late first period goal by Brayden McNabb. He wired a wrist shot by Anderson to give Kootenay a 2-1 lead going into the dressing room after 20 minutes. The shots were even at 11-11.
In the second, neither team was able to generate much offence until late in the period when the Hurricanes tied the game up on a man advantage of their own. Brody Sutter banked a shot off a Kootenay defenceman and past Skapski to tie the game at 2-2. That was Sutter's 17th goal of this season and evened things up after 40 minutes of play. Lethbridge held the edge in shots 19-16.
In the third, the Kootenay ICE would regain their one-goal. Kevin King came down the left wing and sent a low, hard wrist shot off the post and past Anderson to give Kootenay a 3-2 lead. The ICE would jump ahead by a pair of goals just passed the mid-way point of the period. Drew Czerwonka buried a shot upstairs on Brandon Anderson to give the visitors a 4-2 lead. Kootenay would get one more on the power play before the end of the game. Matt Fraser finished off a rebound in front of the Hurricanes net to putthe ICE ahead 5-2, but the Hurricanes would get one more before the game would end. Max Ross tapped in a loose puck for his 15th goal of the season and that's the way things would end as the ICE would skate away with a 5-3 win over Lethbridge. Kootenay out shot the Hurricanes 35-27. The ICE went 3 for 4 on the power play and the Canes' finished the night 1 for 5.
The loss officially eliminated the Hurricanes from playoff contention. The Prince Albert Raiders defeated Swift Current Friday and with that, the Raiders clinch the final post-season spot in the Eastern Conference. P.A. will meet up with the top-ranked Saskatoon Blades in the opening round next weekend. The Canes' will miss the playoffs for the second season in a row. Associate Coach Matt Kabayama said on the CJOC post-game show that it was a disappointing result and even more disappointing that they now know after Saturday, this season will be over. Also on the post-game show Fred asked overage forwards Mitch Maxwell and Max Ross what the future holds after their junior careers comes to an end. Ross says he hopes to play somewhere in the C.I.S. and get an education. Maxwell says he will be going on a two-year mission with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and then return home to southern Alberta and hopes to play hockey in the C.I.S.
HURRICANES 2010-2011 AWARD WINNERS
The hockey club handed 10 awards prior to Friday night's game against the Kootenay ICE. Here are the following winners:
Scholastic Player of the Year: Michael Sofillas
Community Relations Award: Mitch Maxwell
Most Sportsmanlike Player: Jacob Berglund
Top Defenceman Award: Mike Reddington
Top Scorer Award: Cam Braes
Three Stars Award: Cam Braes
Fan Favourite Award: Michael Sofillas
Perseverance, Dedication, & Sportsmanship Award: Brody Sutter
Rookie of the Year Award: Russ Maxwell
Most Valuable Player: Austin Fyten
NEXT UP
The Hurricanes will play their final game of the 2010-2011 season Saturday night at the Rec Plex in Cranbrook. The game is scheduled to start at 7:00 pm (MDT), but the puck drop will be delayed as the ICE hand out their annual awards. The game will get going likely around 7:20. Because of the delayed start, we will push back our pre-game show start time as well. We will be on the air at 6:45 pm.
Thanks,
Pat
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Pat,
ReplyDeleteI want to thank you for your play by play and analysis throughout the season. I have a special interest in this team and live too far away to take in very many games and so rarely missed a broadcast. At one point there was a cable broadcast and I watched that instead, and was amazed at how poorly the broadcasters followed the action, and in particular, how careless or even clueless they were about the names of the players. It struck me at the time that you must do some serious homework to be so adept at calling the play with the names of each player on both teams. And Fred is very good too. Thanks for doing this job it means a lot to me and my family. I'm grateful to CJOC, the hockey club, and the sponsors as well.
I have to say that I watched Fyten play tirelessly last night. He left it all on the ice.
ReplyDeleteNow, in the post game Fred was championing Braes as a potential captain for next season. I witnessed CB late in a must win game when we were down take a faceoff. After the puck drop he put a left onto Boomer's jaw, no call, the immediately he chases Boomer into the corner and elbows him and takes a penalty. The Ice then score on the PP which put the game out of reach.
Is this the way a captain acts?
Anyway, it wasn't the first time I've witnessed this from CB this season.
Fyten for Captain next year if he returns.
GDC
I agree with 10:42 Fyten for captain next year. He is tireless out there and his body takes quite a beating. He is the closest to a Carter Banacks.
ReplyDeleteNext year I would like to see a little more discipline out of the Canes. Far too many unnecessary and stupid penalties.
Looking forward to a better next year have a good bunch of prospects and a good core of returnees. Regardless what some of the psoters on this Blog say.
Go Canes. Finish off with a win tonight!
I agree 100%. Fyten for Captain. Anyone else would be a failure. Sorry Braes, you deserve the A, but Fyten has earned the C.
ReplyDeleteFor the record, I did not champion anyone for Captain on last nights broadcast. At one point, Pat mentioned that Cam would be a strong candidate. I stated that should he return next season, he in all likelihood would be strongly considered to become Captain. Amongst all potential eligible returning players I think Cam and Austin are on equal footing at the top of the list. Since none of us are in the room all the time, at practice faithfully, in all of the team meetings, on the road, apart of the true ups and downs of a WHL season it is hard to say with total confidence who makes a great leader and in turn should be the Captain.
ReplyDeleteI suspect there will be changes this off season. Who knows in what area and how many. This was a very disappointing finish to the season for this team. I believe all facets of the on ice product and the entire hockey operations department need to be diligently examined. This is the toughest two seasons back to back in this clubs history. Determining what needs to happen to make the necessary strides forward in as short of a period as possible has to be the focus of everyone involved.
Fred
Offend someone on this blog in the media and they are quick to come to their defence. Offend a player on the team, or offend a member of the coaching staff, on this blog, and they are not able to come to their defence. If they did, it would turn into a he said, they said, he said, they said, and that would not be acceptable in any fans eyes.
ReplyDeleteRolling my eyes at the childish behavior by many
James
fred and pat thanks for your work you do. must be real frustating dealing with some of the fans and creatures that come onto these sites and others and take their pot shots. dont let these weak bullies get to you guys. thanks for a great season.
ReplyDeleteI would like to echo the initial poster's comments. Both Pat and Fred begin their broadcasts equipped with news, interesting facts, etc, which they deliver at the appropriate time. It is a tricky balance to call the game, and deliver interesting commentary; you never win over everyone, but congrats on a year WELL DONE!
ReplyDeleteTo me, the best example of Pat's professionalism this year was during his broadcast of the Phantom-call game. A lot of emotion shown by a lot of players, coaches, and fans in that game, but Pat delivered the call of information intelligently, and without noticable bias.
A LOT of the color guys for the other WHL teams (eg. Ken Thrower, Hitmen) I find incredibly annoying, either because of their singing on air, lack of hockey intelligence in general, or other annoying speaking idiosyncrasies.
Fred may be a wonderful singer, but I haven't heard him sing yet, and I hope that I never get to. We may miss the occasional commercial due to his tendency to go on and on and on and on, but its always more interesting than the commercial anyway.
Fred, do you have any skills to offer the Canes that might help them win more games next year?
Hope the lads will earn themselves a victory tonight in their year finale to reduce the pain of the year - Richie.
Ouch. And there endeth the year. (I was really hoping for Machacek to finally get a goal tonight- Canes needed SOMETHING to celebrate).
ReplyDeleteI can hardly wait to see:
1. If our GM is going to fire our coach (my preference), or if the board is going to fire them "both" under the "Failure to deliver Guarantees" clause.
2. Wheat Kings LIGHT up Bunz and the Medicine Hat Tigers like the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree. - 6 beats 3. OUT in FIVE (or less).