Tuesday 5 February 2013

Lethbridge Hurricanes Beat Regina Pats 5-2

REGINA, SK - Jamal Watston scored a pair of goals and Ty Rimmer stopped 48 shots as the Lethbridge Hurricanes beat the Pats 5-2 in Regina.

A great start for Lethbridge in this hockey game.  Just a few minutes in, the Canes would open the scoring on the power play when Axel Blomqvist knocked home his 6th of the season. That made it 1-0 Lethbridge.  Less than a minute later, the Hurricanes would strike again.  Josh Derko was fed the puck out front and snapped home his his 6th of the year to give Lethbridge a quick 2-0 lead.  That would be it for Regina's stating goaltender Matt Heweitt who allowed 2 goals on 4 shots.  After that the Pats bounced back.  Chandler Stephenson cashed in a rebound off Ty Rimmer to cut the Canes lead to 2-1, but in the final few minutes of the period Lethbridge would regain it's two goal lead.  Jamal Watson used Reid Duke as a decoy on a 2-on-1 rush and snapped the puck off the post and by Teagan Sacher to give the Hurricanes a 3-1 lead after 20 minutes of play.  The Pats through held a 13-10 edge in shots.

In the second, the Pats would cut into the Hurricanes lead again.  Marc McCoy jammed the loose puck behind Rimmer to make it a one goal game in favour of the Canes, this time 3-2.  Regina would continue to press as the period moved one, but the score would remain that way after 40 minutes.  It was a very busy period Ty Rimmer as he faced 22 shots.  Regina held a 35-19 edge in shots, despite being down 3-2. 

In the third, the Hurricanes would pick things up and put the game away with a pair of goals.  Sam McKechnie, who continues to score very timely goals, scored his 24th of the season to make it 4-2 Lethbridge and late in the period, Jamal Watson would steal the puck from the Regina defence and tap home his 2nd of the night and 14th of the season to make it 5-2 Hurricanes and that's the way the game would end.  The victory improves Lethbridge to 25-23-1-7 on the season for 58 points in 56 games. The Canes power play went 1/4 and the Pats finished the night 0/7.  Assistant Coach Chris Chisamore stated on the CJOC post-game show that the Hurricanes now have to play the same way the next game and not this "Jekyl and Hyde" style of hockey as of late.  He says the question is which Hurricanes team is going to show up in Brandon?

HURRICANES GOALIE MASK DESIGN CONTEST

The Lethbridge Hurricanes have launched a goalie mask design contest with ENMAX!  The ENMAX Energy Goalie Mask Design Contest is now open for kids ages 7 to 17. You could have your design painted on a real goalie mask. Go to www.hurricanescontest.com for rules and to download the official mask design template. Contest closes February 22nd.

NEXT UP

The Hurricanes will play game two of this four game road trip Wednesday (Feb. 5) in Brandon against the Wheat Kings.  The Canes hold a 2-1 edge in the regular season series between the clubs.  The Wheaties sit last in the Eastern Conference and made a few changes at the trade deadline.  Just like Tuesday's game in Regina, this is another one of those game the Hurricanes are favoured to and should win.  Game time from Brandon is 6:00 pm MST.  The pre-game show on CJOC at 5:30.

Thanks,
Pat

10 comments:

  1. Ok,that was good! But do we now get the win one lose one back again?
    Whose job is it to motivate them? I wonder?

    JBL

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  2. Great Game!!! Nice to see Watson step up his Game! Looking more and more like a Lethbridge VS Calgary first round. :)
    Peter

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  3. Great effort guys! Especially Rimmer! That was great work by him with stopping 48 shots.
    Pat: How badly is Leverton injured? Because he has been out for a few games now already. And when abouts is Albin Blomquist expected to be back in the lineup?

    Andrew

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  4. Happy for the boys with the win tonite. But giving up 50 shots to 28?????? ( 22 to 9 in Period 2)
    Canes are consistently being outshot with 35 plus shot per game. Is there anything being attempted to remedy this?

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  5. They would be nuts to spend the money (Sweden return airfare) to bring back Albin, when he is a high risk for another serious concussion. Keep giving Pilon and Erkamps the extra ice time, afterall they should be the number one pairing next season. As for fixing the defensive play there is only one solution. Hire a former defenseman who can coach d-men!

    JBL

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  6. The team is going to struggle on D as they are the youngest in the league and the smallest. It will be tough the rest of the year unless Johnston comes back which probably wont happen if he is having surgery. Good experience for next year though! TD

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  7. Good start to the road trip! Need it to continue tonight. Listened to the game and it sounds like the trade for Derko was just what the team needed! A big body to do some banging, PK, and making room for some of the smaller players.

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  8. Excellent start to the road trip other than giving up 50 shots. Hopefully Hood gets better soon and no one else gets sick with the hours in close quarters on the bus. Credit where credit is due to Preston, it looks like the Derko deal was a great trade for the Canes. Keep it up and get another two in Brandon!

    NN

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  9. Derko obviously has added some toughness, but not too sure about his defensive play.....or anyone else's for that matter!

    The Canes have lost Galbraith, Blomqvist and now Johnston with only Simpson as a replacement. Not sure how the coaching staff thinks this d-core can hold up? I think it's going to be a struggle for them down the stretch and Rimmer could be facing 50 shots a game from this point on. I guess we'll see.

    This was one of those "shouldn't lose to this team" games, so I'm not going to get all giddy about it. I think I'm one of these people who thinks they are in the 'win one, lose one' mode and it will probably continue right to the end of the season. I don't see this team with it's lack of defensive core getting much higher in the standings or very far in the playoffs. Just my opinion.

    Darren

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  10. Glad the boys came away with the win. Giving up that many shots is not good. Playing defence needs to be a team concept. This is a young small defense but if they learn how to play position and how to get positioning then size is not as important. It comes down to coaching again and as someone said earlier actually having a coach that played defense would sure help. Good luck tonight boys. AJ

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