Wednesday 4 January 2012

Hurricanes Fall 6-3 in Edmonton

EDMONTON - A five goal explosion in the second period lifted the Oil Kings to a 6-3 win over the Lethbridge Hurricanes Wednesday night at Rexall Place.

The Hurricanes knew they'd be in tough against the Oil Kings, a team that had a home record of 16-3 going into this game and they did a fine job weathering the storm. Edmonton came out gunning, but Damien Ketlo turned away every shot he faced. Despite being outplayed, the Canes opened the scoring mid-way through the period, when Nick Buonassisi's shot went off goaltender Laurent Brossoit and onto the stick of Cam Braes. He tapped it in for his team leading 22nd of the year to give Lethbridge a 1-0 lead. That held up as the only goal in the opening 20 minutes. Ketlo was great in goal as the Hurricanes were out shot 19-5.

In the second, the Oil Kings would make short order of that 1-0 Lethbridge and blew the game open with five goals. Edmonton scored two goals in 1:34, on their first two shots of the period to quickly take a 2-1 lead. First, Klarc Wilson beat Ketlo between the legs just 44 second into the period and shortly after that T.J. Foster fired a shot that beat Ketlo to give Edmonton a 2-1 lead. The Canes got that back soon after, when Reid Duke stole puck off an Oil Kings turnover and made a pretty move to beat Brossoit and tie the game at 2-2. Edmonton though would take over after that with three more goals. In final 12 minutes of the period, Cole Benson, Michael St. Croix, and Dylan Wruck all scored to give the Oil Kings a 5-2 lead through two periods.
The Hurricanes did better in the shots on goal department, but Edmonton still held the edge in shots 31-22.

In third, Liam Liston would start in goal for the Hurricanes. Liston played well in relief, but he did allow one goal. With about 7 minutes to go, Mitch Moroz sealed the game with a power play goal. That made it 6-2 Edmonton. The Hurricanes would get one more before the end when Landon Oslanski scored his 5th of the year on the power play to cut the lead to 6-3, but that's as close as the Canes would get on this night. Lethbridge was out shot 41-33. The Canes went 1/4 on the power play and Edmonton finished the game 1/2.

A milestone in this game for Cam Braes with a goal and one assist. Those two points give the Hurricanes Captain 200 in his WHL career. Both teams played a disciplined game with only a few power plays combined, but for Lethbridge it was the second period that was the difference. The loss drops the Canes overall record to 15-26-0-1. Lethbridge has been pretty much a .500 team at home with a record of 11-12, but on the road things have been different. Away from the ENAMX Centre, the Hurricanes have just 4 wins in 19 games.

The Hurricanes played with a shortened bench last night. With three players still away at the U-17's and Brady Ramsey and Spencer Galbraith out with injury, the Canes called up forwards Reid Duke and Tyler Wong to play in Edmonton. It was Duke's 7th game with the Hurricanes and Wong's 3rd this season. Jay Merkley, Craig Leverton, and Macoy Erkamps will be back in the Lethbridge line-up Friday night.

NEXT UP

The Hurricanes are back home Friday night to host the Medicine Hat Tigers. This will be 5th meeting of the season between the two rivals. The Hurricanes will also hold their Alumni Induction ceremony prior to the game as the organization installs Jamie Pushor, Bob Bartlett, and Jason Ruff into the Hurricanes/Broncos Hall of Fame. Fans are asked to be in their seats by 6:45 pm for this game as the induction ceremony will begin at 6:50. This game will also be broadcast on SHAW and because it's a TV game, the ceremony has to start and be finished shortly after 7:00. This will be the Canes last home game for two weeks as they will play their next 6 straight away from the ENMAX Centre.

Thanks,
Pat

10 comments:

  1. hey richie, who do you think they will play against in the 1st round of the playoffs. quit coming on hear like you know lots about hockey. be a fan and cheer dont pretend to know stuff in detail about hockey.

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  2. I have know idea why you are trashing richie, but whatever. This team will not make the playoffs because of tbe long losing streak. The team is playing pretty good hockey now and hopefully that will continue after the trade deadline. Glad to see Kuvaev is doing horrible in Vancouver he only has 5 points in 4 games.

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  3. the tickets say start time is 7, so i wouldn't expect most fans to be arriving early for the HOF ceremony.

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  4. The trade winds are very quiet...is this the calm before the Hurricane??

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  5. I think we have some good young kids coming up. Good to see Reid Duke back up the goal here with one in Edmonton.

    As for Anon 12:29pm Kuvaev may have 4 points in 5 games and 4 penalty minutes in the same period. I do not think he could keep up with some of the young kids we have now. Not sad to see him playing somewhere else.

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  6. Just curious to know how many of you have ever played competitive hockey or any other sport. To Anon 4:14 let me guess you are the person that feels we should trade Johnston for an 18-19 year old scorer. Apparently 5 points in 4 games isn't enough for you.

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  7. Kuvaev seemed to have a hard transition to leaving home last year to play in Canada. I don't think the kid we had is the one Vancouver has this year, a year older, a little perspective and maybe wanting to play in Canada instead of being homesick. Can anyone say he really wanted to be here last year, not from any of the stories i've heard. Blame it on the coaches if you want but I don't think that was the problem.

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  8. @9:02 Very few try to look outside the box and think other situations or circumstances could play into the success or failure of our team and players. Read on a yahoo sports page that Sutter could be on the trade blog and that Moose Jaw and Portland have 20year old openings. Not sure what Moose Jaw thinks of T. White but given his age he may be a good addition to our 95 group? Could be a fair trade?

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  9. Oh I am sure the bloggers and would be GM's have every member of the Canes including the coaching staff on the trade block. It makes for good rumour mongering.

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  10. hi pat i cant wait for tonights game it should be a big crowd with medicine hat tigers in town go canes go were going to win tonight i got a feeling we got to make the building tonight nice and loud go canes go and do the wave canes fan forever watch for me on the march 10th game on the eye magazine

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