MEDICINE HAT - The Medicine Hat Tigers erased a one goal deficit three times and scored twice in the final minute of the second period as they came back to hammer the Lethbridge Hurricanes 10-3 Saturday night.
A great start for the Hurricanes on the road in this game. 2:01 into the first period, Reid Duke would score his 5th goal in the last 4 games off a nice feed from Axel Blomqvist, making it 1-0 Hurricanes. Medicine Hat would even the score a few minutes later when Jacob Doty hopped off the bench and fired home a shot over the glove of Ty Rimmer make it a 1-1 hockey game. The Hurricanes would regain their one goal lead before the end of the period when Graham Hood notched his 8th of the season, making it 2-1 Hurricanes after 20 minutes. Lethbridge got into a bit of penalty trouble late in the period when Sam McKechnie was given a double minor and then a 10 minute misconduct, putting Medicine Hat on a power play for 4 minutes. The Tigers though held a comfortable edge in shots 17-9.
In the second, the Tigers would even the score again. This time on a power play when Miles Koules beat Rimmer to tie things up at 2-2. Lethbridge would get that one back shortly after when Axel Blomqvist scored his 4th goal of the year to make 3-2 Hurricanes. It stayed like that until the final 7 minutes of the period when the Hurricanes would find themselves in some big time penalty trouble and the Tigers would make them pay dearly. Curtis Valk tied the game at 3-3 and then in the final minute of the period Medicine Hat would score twice more, both on the man advantage. Curtis Valk tipped home his second of the night to make it 4-3 Tigers and with just one second remaining on the clock, Hunter Shinkaruk banked one off Rimmer and in to give the Tigers a 5-3 lead through 40 minutes of play. The Tigers held a slight edge in shots 31-26.
In the third, the Tigers would extend their lead and put this game away. Elgin Pearce scored to make it a 6-3 game in favour of the Tigers. Medicine Hat wasn't done there. They would add 4 more before the end of the game. Logan McVeigh, Tyler Lewington, Chad Labelle, and Hunter Shinkaruk all scored in the final 10 minutes or so and the Tigers would hammer the Canes 10-3. The Hurricanes pulled Ty Rimmer after the 8th goal, in favour of Chris Tai. The loss drops the Canes record to 21-20-1-5 on the season and now the Tigers move to within 5 points of the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference standings and also have three games in hand. Medicine Hat out shot Lethbridge 46-29. The Tigers were 3/7 on the power play and Lethbridge 1/3.
ESTEPHAN CALLED UP
The Hurricanes called up prospect Giorgio Estpehan for Saturday's game against the Tigers. Brady Ramsay was serving the second game of a two game suspension while Russ Maxwell re-aggravated an ankle jury and was out of the line-up for this game as well.
NEXT UP
The Hurricanes are now U.S. bound for their next road trip this coming weekend. The Canes will play in Portland Friday (Jan. 18), Everett Saturday (Jan. 19), and Seattle Sunday evening (Jan. 20) before returning home. This will be the first time this season that the Hurricanes will play three games in three nights. All games on 94.1 CJOC. The Portland and Everett games are both 8:00 pm MST starts. The game in Seattle is set for 6:00 pm MST.
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.
With a couple of breaks we could of won that one!..NOT Good thing we're bigger and tougher......How many penalty minutes do Shinkaruk, Valk Koulis have. I guess skill does matter especially on the pp. Rich do you know what your doing...are we better after the trade deadline?...is our schedule going to get easier? ...are we in any danger of not making the playoffs? There is no question we have talent...I think at least after all of our high picks the last few years but it did not look good tonight. Hopefully an off game. Sometimes there is nothing better then getting on the road to right the ship.
ReplyDeletePenalties and undisciplined play are killers. Talking to the Refs solves nothing. Discipline begins with the coaches! It is apparent that RP needs to do something to get the players to smarten up! This weekend was all about lack of discipline. In Edmonton Maxwell with a stupid slashing penalty as well as other players taking lazy penalties( hooking, tripping etc.). Last night the parade and talking back penalties. You can not spot a team 30mins of power play time ( 50 mins to 20 mins) and expect to win. The loss last night was embarrassing!
ReplyDeletePretty hard for the players to stay disciplined when the coach is leading the way in the other direction. He was responsible for putting them two men down late in the second with his chirping which lead to the Tigers scoring at the end of the second and early in the third. After that the Canes pretty much mailed it in.
ReplyDeleteIt's not the end of the world, but allowing a team below us in the standings to roll up 10 goals is not acceptable at this point in the season. This one's ALL on the head coach. Not cutting him any slack on this one. He'd better get his head clear for the upcoming road trip.
ReplyDeleteGood coaches make sure the ref knows that he made a mistake on a call... It happens, they make their share. You make your point, the ref either agrees or disagrees, and you move on. If you make a compelling arguement, you will likely get a call or two to make it up. Happens all the time. RP didn't know when to stop.
ReplyDeleteAnd he must have been thinking about his coaching mistake a bit too long, because Rimmer should have been gone on about the 4th or 5th goal when the Canes still had a chance... NOT on goal number 8!!
Come on, coach! Smarten up, or move yourself out!! Richie.
As the hockey man in Red Deer said, "Time to have a different voice"....to have different plans and plays, to motivate, to teach, to adjust and make changes before meeting the opposing team and during the game as needed.
ReplyDeleteHelp the players and this team salvage this season. They deserve better.
Ok time to voice my opinion on the trade now that I have calmed down. The Merkley deal could be one of the worst trades the Canes have ever made. There were alot of 19 year olds traded at the deadline and most went for draft picks. Derko may help with the size but we lost alot of scoring. Someone asked way back how to get Merkley on the top 1-2 lines. It seems really easy put Ramsey on right wing in Axel spot and put in Merkley at centre in Ramsey spot. Then even Duke could have moved into the 3 line. I hope for this teams sake they make the playoffs or they will lose more season ticket holders and the only ones to blame are those on the board that gave RP a contract extension instead of his walking papers. AJ
ReplyDeleteTeam wins and the players get all the accolades and the team loses the same old crap starts over - rip on the coaches. Get something new or someone new to go after. Merkley is not or was not the be all of the Canes. Some players do better in new scenery. The deal is done so move on !!
ReplyDeleteThe players and only the players need to accept the blame for the 10-3 loss. They chose to act like goons rather than players on the ice and took double minors, majors and just too many penalties period!!!
We had a soft schedule in the first half of the season with many home games. The 2nd half will be different and there are many road games. Should be a fun time to see how well they play on the road -- most teams (and I am not going to compare the elite teams like Edmonton, Calgary, Portland, Prince Albert) but most teams don't fair as well on the road as at home. You might get lucky and get a road win, but the majority don't. Fact of the game !!
You are not going to win any battles with the refs with "F-Bombs" from the bench. It also sends a bad message to the players. No wonder this club is so undisciplined. Tough 25 games left, with everyone in the conference having at least 1 game in hand (Sask has 5) you could see 5th place disappear. In fact if SC wins their next game, its gone. Hurricanes will play 13 games against teams with better records, and 12 games with teams that currently have fewer points. With a PP and PK that has dropped to 15th overall every game will be tough. Does this team have the skill, discipline, work ethic to be successfull on the road? It all begins at the top, and with the lack of development, no powerplay schemes and general systems or adjustments to what the other teams throw at them, the playoffs becomes a huge concern. Frankly, after 4 years of a so-called "plan", if they fail again then all of the coaching staff must be removed. Lack of money or not! Or sell the team!!!!!
ReplyDeleteJBL
I moved to Lethbridge a few weeks ago a wanted to go to game. I like hockey. So I go to see Hurricanes play. The night I go, Hurricanes have nice airplane jersey. But, on the big tv I see a hurricane storm, and then a train on bridge says cane train. Please help me because it be very confused. Is this team a storm, a train or a plane?
ReplyDeleteNyshta
Anon...8:02pm.....Who the hell do you think the players take their cues from???? Their mothers??? Preston started that whole fiasco. That's where the blame lies and that's who's feet it falls at. If you don't like the coach being blamed, too freaking bad. I give credit when credit it due and it certainly wasn't due after a 10-3 drubbing to a team below us in the standings.
ReplyDeleteGive the rest of us a break. If you don't understand the game, back away from the computer.
@ 7:35pm.. ??
ReplyDeleteYou're comments @ 8:02pm (Richie) to back away from the computer, yet you have essentially made the same point as he did... i.e. Preston is at fault for the loss.
Maybe YOU need to either learn to READ, or "back away from YOUR computer?"
The coach is the face and leader of the team and the rest of the team acts and performs accordingly. When the coach acts erratic and goes off on emotional tirade, the team follows suit.
ReplyDeleteWhen the leader is inconsistent the team becomes the same.
Loosing a gasket once in a while shows frustration. Doing it often shows an unbalance.
Canes hockey has been unbalanced for more than a decade. You dont realize what you had till it's gone.
Okotoks could use a franchise.
Sorry Richie....my comments weren't directed at you. They should've been directed at Anon 12:32.
ReplyDelete