LETHBRIDGE - The Red Deer Rebels scored the lone goal in the shoot out to beat the Lethbridge Hurricanes 3-2 Saturday night.
A pretty entertaining opening period between Lethbridge and Red Deer. The Hurricanes came out gunning in this game with several good scoring chances in the first 10 or 15 minutes, but Patrik Bartosak was outstanding between the pipes for the Rebels to keep the Canes off the scoreboard. Red Deer's best chances came late in the period. Ty Rimmer came up with a gamer-saver stop in the final few minutes to keep the scoreless after 20 minutes. Lethbridge held the edge in shots 15-10.
In the second, both teams would go hard to try and break the scoreless tie, but neither goalie, Rimmer or Bartosak would budge. The Canes and Rebels had some great scoring chances again during this period, but just like the first period, the game remained scoreless through 40 minutes of play. Red Deer came on strong in the second and held the edge in shots 27-23.
In the third, the Lethbridge Hurricanes would break open the hockey game with a power play goal. Macoy Erkamps' point shot went through everyone, beating Bartosak to give the Canes a 1-0 lead. That was his 5th goal of the season. Erkamps now has 2 goals and 12 assists in his last 11 games. Red Deer would tie the game on a power play of their own. Brady Gaudet's shot bounced off the back boards, hit Rimmer in the leg and went in. That evened the score at 1-1. A few minutes later Lethbridge would regain the lead, this time on a goal by Sam McKechnie, his 22nd of the season giving the Canes a 2-1 lead late in the period. With 90 seconds remaining in the 3rd, the Rebels would get the equalizer when Rhryse Dieno's shot beat Rimmer, tying the game at 2-2 and sending the contest into overtime.
The extra 5 minutes decided nothing and again the Hurricanes would have to go into a shoot out. The only player to score would be Rhryse Dieno and that would give the Red Deer Rebels a 3-2 come-from-behind victory. Despite the loss, the Hurricanes get a big single point and see their record fall to 23-21-1-7 on the season. The Hurricanes have only two wins in 9 shoot outs this season. Red Deer out shot the Hurricanes 45-31. Both teams finished the night 1/3 on the power play.
The Hurricanes temporarily move one point ahead of Swift Current and into sole possession of 5th place in the Eastern Conference. It was a very entertaining hockey game and the second time this year the Rebels have been the Hurricanes in a shoot out. The two teams meet again next Friday (Feb. 1) in Lethbridge.
NEXT UP
The Hurricanes are down to their final 20 games in this current WHL regular season. The Canes will take on the Oil Kings Sunday afternoon at Rexall Place. This will be the final meeting of the season between these teams. Game time is 4:00 pm MST. The pregame show on CJOC at 3:30. The Hurricanes next home game is Friday (Feb. 1) when they host Red Deer.
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.
GREAT first 20 minutes of this hockey game for the Canes. They looked like the number one team in the dub.
ReplyDeleteHad they stuck with the same effort for an additional 40, they would have seen a much different ending... but they didn't... or maybe Sutter is just better at making in-game adjustments than his counterpart.
15 shots by the Canes in the first, followed by only another 15 in the remaining 2 combined vs 32 for Red Deer?!
Good for Derko to keep out of the box while consistently throwing some punishing hits.
Another soft goal allowed by Rimmer! A tender with his experience and talent should not be getting fooled by a puck off the back board, then off the back of his leg and in. He cannot continue to play really well the majority of the time, only to let in soft goals!
Yet another beatable opponent given a huge pass by the 2/3 disinterested Canes. - Richie.
And excellent selection on the shootout Rich. Axel has obviously proven himself as an experienced scorer. Ridiculous. It's kind of like the power play - just roll the lines and players and hope something miraculaous works out. Take some time Rich and be a coach.
ReplyDeleteNBJ
Tough loss Canes. Tough to give up a goal that late in the game, but it sounds like RD was pressing for most of the 3rd.
ReplyDeleteRichie....wouldn't you try harder if you were outworked, outskated and outshot in the first as badly as RD was and then have to go back to the dressing room to face Brent Sutter??? I'm not surprised RD came out much stronger for the last two periods. They were getting outplayed in front of their Saturday night home crowd. The Canes aren't going to blow anybody out of their home rinks. They're in a pack of teams that isn't as good as Edmonton or Calgary (but can beat either of them on a good night), but not as bad as Brandon or Moose Jaw. Swift, Med. Hat, Saskatoon, Red Deer, Kootenay (apparently) and the Canes are all part of that group.
As for Rimmer, he stops 43/45 shots and you're criticizing his weak goal? Interesting! The Canes wouldn't have been in the shootout if not for Rimmer in my opinion.
One more game boys. You'll need to find some hidden energy for this one (some 5 hour Energy?!!) Stay disciplined and play hard!
Go Canes!
Darren
NBJ ... cause all the players getting picked in the shootout before has worked so well. Why not give Axel a chance to shoot, gotta try to find something to work in shootouts. Those 7 shootout losses really stand out. Win 3 of those and the Canes are right there with Red Deer in the standings. Those couple of points could come back to haunt them.
ReplyDeleteAs far as the powerplay goes, I think maybe we should look at the Canes penalty killing. At one point not too long ago it was up near 10th-11th in the league, now its down around 17th-18th. Need to step that part of the game up!
Love the way Erkamps and Pilon have stepped up with Johnston out of the lineup (especially Erkamps) It's fun to watch those 2 play together
CanesFan17
Great 1st period by the Canes. The push back by RD in the 2nd is expected but then the Canes should have had a little more jump in the 3rd. Erkamps is playing great especially with the absence of Johnston which is huge as Johnston is far and away the team MVP in my eyes. Hopefully Erkamps starts to get some draft consideration with this recent play.
ReplyDeleteThe issue with Rimmer is not his overall play, especially in this game, it's his bad habit of letting in that one stinker almost every game. Regardless he has been a great goalie all season long its just easy for us arm chair coaches to focus on the weak goals.
The PP is perplexing and has been all season long. It drives me up the wall that we just roll lines instead if actually having units that could develop some chemistry together with the man advantage. Good on the boys for getting a goal on the PP but before that best chances were for RD on our PP.
Axle in the SO is a bit strange to me, he seems like a pass first kind of guy to me. Why not give Remi the shot as he has some soft hands and good moves.
Good luck this afternoon in Edmonton. Hopefully you can get two points in spite of the WHL's brutal scheduling. It is hard enough to play 3 in 3 days let alone having a later start for a televised game that runs longer with commercial breaks and then you get an afternoon the next day. At least we don't have 9 three in threes like the Giants.
NN
It was a very entertaining game, and with the overwhelming domination of the first period, one which I thought the Hurricanes should have won.
ReplyDeleteDarren, I have the same opinion as Richie, while RD certainly stepped it up in the third, it looked to me as if our boys were getting tired. The boys were running around in their own end for much of the third, and were really having trouble keeping the intensity level up. Our boys HAVE to learn to keep the pedal to the metal, and not allow other teams up.
As far as Rimmer goes, I think that if the goals he was letting in were good shots, or at least goal mouth scrambles or the like, the fans could, and would, accept that. An "elite" goalie does not have back to back games with weak goals. Yes, he is a good goalie. Yes he has a great save percentage, and yes he makes some amazing saves. But "elite" goalies make the "easy" saves, and "elite" goalies step it up when the team is desperately depending on them, like shootout situations. Maybe he is tired, maybe he is not focussed, whatever. The boys need the early season Rimmer if they have any chance of making, and excelling in the playoffs.
Chuck
Chuck and Richie......I think you should start directing your criticism at someone other than the Rimmer. Giving up that 45 shots is the issue, not the goaltending. Sure, he's let in some weak ones, but what do you expect when he's facing that much rubber??? He's just not going to stop them all even if some of them aren't overly tough. The 'Law of Averages' isn't my law.
ReplyDeleteDarren
CanesFan 17. You must be right. Since we have been so successful in the past in the shootout trying every person in the lineup why not throw Axel in there too? Not smart pal. What wasn't working by trying new guys still isn't going to work. Maybe they'll shoot Harper next? The answer is actually practicing it and choosing those who can prove themselves to be most successful. You are absolutely right - those extra points are vital. I have to thing Duke, Maxwell and Ramsay have the best chance to score on any given occasion but let's at least give the best shooters their chance and not just keep trying until we've gone through everyone in the lineup. Same goes for the PP as we've said an infinite number of times.
ReplyDeleteNBJ