Saturday 11 January 2014

Oil Kings Hammer Hurricanes 8-0

LETHBRIDGE - Edgars Kulda had a four point night as the Edmonton Oil Kings won their 6th straight game, defeating the Lethbridge Hurricanes 8-0 Saturday night.

Not a good opening period for the hometown Lethbridge Hurricanes in this game. Edmonton scored a pair of goals to get on the score board. Brett Pollock opened the scoring just over 6 minutes into the hockey game. He took a nice drop pass from Edgers Kulda and roofed a shot over the glove of Jonny Hogue to give Edmonton a 1-0 lead. Before the end of the period the Oil Kings would add to their lead when Riley Kieser cashed in a rebound in front of the Lethbridge goal. That gave the visitors a 2-0 lead through 20 minutes of play. The Hurricanes had trouble generating any offence in the first period as Edmonton out shot the Canes 11-3.

In the second, the Oil Kings would pick up right where they left off in the first. This time a pair of quick goals 1:30 apart. Edgers Kulda was sprung free on a breakaway while the Oil Kings were killing a penalty and he scored to make it 3-0 Edmonton. That was the Oil Kings 6th shorthanded goal of the season. Just over a minute later, Mads Eller stepped out of the penalty box and moved in and scored, beating Jonny Hogue. That made it 4-0 Edmonton. That would be it for Hogue. He surrendered 4 goals on 19 shots, Jarrod Schamerhorm would come in and he was perfect stopping all 10 shots he faced. Again, the Hurricanes were unable to find the back of the net and the Oil Kings would take a 4-0 lead into the dressing room through 40 minutes of play. The shots favoured Edmonton 29-15.

In the third, the Oil Kings would open up the flood gates with four more goals. Reid Petryk and Blake Orban both found the back of net early in the period in a span of less than a minute. That would make it 6-0 Edmonton. The visitors weren't done there. They got two more before the final buzzer sounded. Edgars Kulda snapped home his 2nd goal of the hockey game, beating Schamerhorn to make it 7-0 Edmonton and then before it was said and done Riley Kieser scored his second of the night. That was also a shorthanded goal, Edmonton's second shorty of the game. That made it 8-0 Oil Kings and that's the way this one would end. The loss drops the Canes overall record to 9-32-2-3 in 46 games this season. Edmonton went 0/8 on the power play in this game, but they did score twice shorthanded. Lethbridge finished the night 0/5. The Oil Kings out shot the Canes 41-23.

Hurricanes This Week

Our weekly Hurricanes radio show is back on the air Monday night (Jan. 13). We will bring in the Hurricanes Media Roundtable for the first time in 2014. Joining myself and Fred Jack in-studio will be Paul Kingsmith from Global TV and Dylan Purcell from the Lethbridge Herald. Lots to cover with the trade deadline now past as well as the outlook for the final 8 weeks of the regular season.  The show airs at 7:00 pm. As always if you miss a live broadcast you can head the CJOC website the following day and download the program and listen.

Next Up

The Hurricanes will close out this four game home stand on Tuesday (Jan. 14) when they host the rival Medicine Hat Tigers. This will be the 5th of 8 meeting this season between the two clubs. Game time is 7:00 pm MST. The pre-game show on CJOC at 6:30. After that, the Canes hit the road for 5 straight games starting next Saturday (Jan. 18) in Red Deer and then it's off to Prince George, Kamloops, Vancouver, and Kelowna.

Thanks,
Pat

8 comments:

  1. Looking forward to how the regular contributing Canes "fans" pin this one on Boes!
    Eileen L

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great game by the Canes last night. Held a top team like the Oil Kings to only 8 goals. The Oil Kings have been together all year while the Canes have had a lot of turnover lately. You can see management and coaching have turned this around and if they get another 10 or 20 years they might have the Canes coming within 3 or 4 goals of the other team.

    Only 4 goals against for each of our goalies? Hard to see anything wrong with that. Single digit wins half way through the season? Big things are coming.

    Hard not to be excited about the possibilities of this team turning in a 5-1 or 7-2 loss in the next couple of games.

    Moon

    ReplyDelete
  3. I would like to blame the poor reefing for the loss last night. That however is not the case the loss can only be blamed on the Canes themselves. A terrible game too many players dragging a chain.

    A View from Above

    ReplyDelete
  4. Someone needs to ask the question what will change next year? Team has only 2 16 year olds playing and no obvious stars and no goaltending. It would be great to say the team was building if they had 3 or 4 hot 16 year old prospects in their line up but they don't. I cannot see the path to future success. TD

    ReplyDelete
  5. Didn't enjoy the game at all last night, and I know the players enjoyed it much less because a couple of guys that normally dont put themselves ahead of the team took penalties from frustration that they know they should not take.

    I have still managed to enjoy games this year despite the home team being tactfully and thoroughly defeated, but I am certain that this was the least enjoyable game I have been at this season.

    I just searched the WHL stat and schedule pages to review the Oil Kings season with hopes of finding solace in them thrashing other opponents regularly. I was disappointed to learn that on one other occasion only have they scored eight goals or more this season (Oct 4; 9-1 in Prince Albert), though they also recently (Jan 4) shut-out the Seattle "Hurricanes" almost as convincingly at 7-0. Clearly that eighth goal is the ultimate dagger, though. Eight. So innocent and snowman like, but so deadly to the psyche. So much more disgusting and irritating than to lose by just seven. Any team can lose by seven (any many with records better than ours have done so this year), but to get shut-out and lose by eight or more, you have to REALLY stink for the ENTIRE game... and we did.

    Other than feeling that both tenders made some really nice saves to keep it under a full dozen goals against, there were very few encouraging moments in this game.

    So what are we more likely to see next? A victory, or another defection?

    I hope the Canes show a lot more pride and compete on Tuesday night against the Tigers. If they don't, they sure won't find the opposition as accommodating and ready to back off and settle for only 8 as the Oil Kings seemed to.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Did anyone else notice that Sheen sat the remainder of the game after serving his 10 minute misconduct? We couldn't figure out what that misconduct was for in the first place.

    I agree with Rant in that this was likely the least enjoyable game of the season. Just watching the whole dump-and-chase thing is absolutely worse when it means that we are constantly giving away possession of the puck every time the players do that as instructed by this ridiculous coaching staff. Hopefully Tuesday will provide better results.

    -cc

    ReplyDelete
  7. I too must join the chorus of disappointment. This game was the most painful of the season to watch. Staying in my seat until the final whistle is either the sign of a very dedicated fan (which I am) or that of a masochist.
    No sense picking on any players/coaches, they all deserve to hang their collective heads in shame.
    But, here is one observation and it is certainly not a criticism of Johnny Hogue. Anyone who knows Johnny, knows that this is a great kid, who works so hard, and who loves to play, and quit is not in his vocabulary. However, despite his work ethic, his love for the game, Johnny is not physically made for the WHL. He is too small and unfortunately leaves open spaces that become more open when he drops into the butterfly. Most of the successful teams in this league have goaltenders who are at least 6ft or better.
    Heck, I too cheer when he comes up with a big save as he has done in his last two appearances, but the smart forwards on the opposition are quick to exploit this lack of size.
    The trouble is, we are faced with the prospect of playing a small goaltender and a "fill in" until Sacher gets healthy.

    Which brings up another question. Sacher is out with a concussion, and it is not his first. Apparently it could be his third. I wonder if Brad Robson asked the question of Tegan's health and got a direct answer. Or was he led to believe by Chad Lang, that Sacher was ok when it came to concussions. He would not be the first to be led astray but false information or the lack thereof. If however, Brad was told about Sacher's concussion history, why did he pick him up when he knew he was a health risk?

    Medicine Hat on Tuesday, a perfect time for the Hurricane players to show their heart.

    Dump'n Chase
    I

    ReplyDelete
  8. Robson mentioned that they will be resting Sacher longer than the average player who gets a concussion, due to the fact it isn't his first...

    With that in mind, the Canes play the Tigers tomorrow... the very team that GAVE Sacher his latest concussion, along with MANY cheap injuries to Canes players in the previous years... and fourth Tiger to get a suspension against the Canes in the past season and a half !!

    Hopefully the embarrassing 8-0 result along with the chance to drive every Tiger into the boards MANY times will motivate the Canes...

    Whether fan favourite #27 is in the lineup or not... this will be the most important game of the season to date!!

    GO CANES GO

    ReplyDelete