LETHBRIDGE - The Prince Albert Raiders came back from a one goal deficit twice as they beat the Lethbridge Hurricanes 3-2 Friday night at the ENMAX Centre.
The Hurricanes got things going very early in this game. Just 19 seconds into this one, Russ Maxwell beat Luke Siemens in the Raiders goal to give Lethbridge a 1-0 lead. That would be Maxwell's team-leading 14th goal of the season. A few minutes later, the Raiders would tie the game. Leon Draisaitl took a feed from Mike Winther on a two-on-one rush and he beat Ty Rimmer to even the game up at 1-1. Late in the period though the Hurricanes would regain their one goal lead when Jamal Watson banked a shot off the leg of Jaimen Yakubowski and in to give Lethbridge a 2-1 lead after 20 minutes of play. That was Yakubowski's 6th goal of the season. The shots were even at 10-10.
In the second, the Raiders would tie the game once again, this time a shorthanded goal. The Hurricanes got caught at centre ice and gave up a clear cut breakaway to Leon Drailsaitl who made no mistake, scoring his 2nd of the night to tie the game up at 2-2. PA pounded 16 shots at Ty Rimmer in this period. The Raiders held the edge in shots 27-15 through two periods of play.
In the third, the Raiders would take their first lead of the night. Logan McVeigh batted home the puck just a little over two minutes in the period. That goal made it 3-2 P.A. The Canes tried to put on a big push after that to find the equalizer, but Luke Siemens was able to shut the door and for only the 3rd time in the last 17 games, the Hurricanes would lose in regulation time. It's also the second victory of the season for Prince Albert in Lethbridge. The Raiders out shot the Canes 32-25. The loss drops the Hurricanes record to 13-9-1-1 on the season. The win vaults the Raiders back into first place in the Eastern Conference.
INJURY UPDATE
Head Coach and GM Rich Preson gave me an injury update prior to Friday's game. He says Connor Sutton is over his sickness and is pretty much ready to play again. Mike Sofillas is skating again after missing the past few weeks, and Graham Hood will be sidelined for a couple more weeks with a fracture in his hand.
NEXT UP
The Hurricanes have Saturday off this weekend and get set to play host to the visiting Brandon Wheat Kings on Sunday evening. This will be the 3rd of 4 meetings this season between the two teams, with the Hurricanes winning both, one in Lethbridge and once on the road last weekend in Brandon. Game time 6:00 pm MST. The pre-game show on CJOC at 5:30. The Hurricanes will also host the Calgary Hitmen on Tuesday.
Thanks,
Pat
The views expressed on this blog are those of the moderator and contributors and are not endorsed by 94.1 CJOC or the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
Well the boys played ok in the first, and third and absolutely horrible in the second. Which coach told the d-men that one of them has to pinch every time the puck is coming out of the offensive zone. On almost every play there seemed to be an odd man rush and even a 2 on 0 when we were on the pp. Why does Ax Blom still play so many minutes ? I still have know idea why so many people like him. He is a Euro that should play 4 line minutes until he learns the north american game. Rimmer must have one tough mask because he takes more shots off of the face than any goalie I have ever seen. At least 3 again last night. Remember boys puck pressure, puck pressure, puck pressure !!!!!!!! AJ
ReplyDeleteAxel spent lots of time on the bench after his two bad penalties. The Canes did not play their game, and Chris Chisamore said it best that they were trying to do too much. But, lets face facts, PA is older, bigger, more experienced and almost just as fast as the younger, smaller more inexperienced Hurricanes. Harper, is too slow! Preston needs to make a deal for a big, fast, scoring forward to make room for the little pests. (Good term for our Canes). This should be a good lesson for the Canes, not to get away from their game.
ReplyDeleteIf we had any scoring finese around the net and on breakaways, the Canes could have been up by 3-4 in the first.
What's with the ref not stopping play when a goaltender obviously takes a shot off the mask?
Great crowd of over 4300, who needs the NHL?
RJ
I echo RJ and AJ comments...a learning game for Canes. The young D got exposed specifically Erkamps and Pilon. They gave up at least 3 or 4 -two on ones and two break aways. Being -2 was flattering. Canes are now 1 win and 8 losses with Harper in lineup. He absolutely kills thae 4 th line and makes Duke and Wong invisable he was -1 on the about 8 shifts he did have and it could have been worse. He has never played above Junior B and that would be a stretch today. Canes need at least two fowards that can skate and play on the 4 th line to deal with the injuries that will happen. It cant be that hard to pick 4th line players up. The good news is they are not far away from being really really good....hopefully they can learn from that loss...time for a big bounce back tomorrow!! Scott
ReplyDeleteGreat to see some Canes on the Plays of the week! I can't remember that happening in a long time. I enjoyed the game last night...boys can play with the big boys and just need to focus on getting better every game....
ReplyDeleteWe are getting better against this opponent...
ReplyDeleteOn Oct 9th when PA came to town, it took Maxwell 21 seconds to score the first goal of the game to give McNeill a quick minus 1, before PA went on to score 4 unanswered, outshoot us 35 to 20, and beat us 4-1.
In this game, it only took Maxwell 19 seconds to score the game's first goal to give McNeill a minus 1, and we were only outshot 32 to 25 to lose 3-2.... AND... unlike the last game, this one could have gone either way.
Loved 7-11 together again; hope this stays.
I sure am disappointed with both Blomq. In pre-season Ab-Blom's first season, he showed that he could throw HUGE hits and play really physical, but he would often end a great check with an undisciplined penalty. He has reduced his bad penalties, but now his physicality is essentially GONE. With Galbraith gone, it sure would be nice to see some of his big (clean) hits again! ... And what is with Ax-Blom and the late hits?
As I watched Johnston's short-handed goal on the plays of the week, I wondered how many WHL GMs called Preston to ask if he would consider moving him...
I HOPE THE ANSWER IS ALWAYS "NO!!" -
GSP > Condit ?? - Richie