Friday 10 January 2014

Rockets Defeat Lethbridge Hurricanes 5-1

LETHBRIDGE -The Kelowna Rockets scored twice late in the second and two more times in the third as they beat the Lethbridge Hurricanes 5-1 Friday night.

The Lethbridge Hurricanes opened the scoring in this game against the high-powered Kelowna Rockets. Half way through the first period Giorgio Estephan tapped home his 8th goal of the season to give Lethbridge a 1-0 lead. The score stayed that way until the final few minutes of the period when Nick Merkley took a great feed and snapped a shot over goalie Jonny Hogue with 1:05 remaining to even up the score at 1-1. Kelowna held a 14-10 edge in shots on goal after 20 minutes. Hogue came up with three very good stops for the Hurricanes in that period.

In the second, the Hurricanes had some golden chances to regain their one goal lead with three power plays in the period, but they were unable score. Things remained tied up at 1-1 until the final 1:15. The Rockets ended up with a power play when Myles Bell fired home a shot, beating Jonny Hogue to give Kelowna a 2-1 lead. Then with 10 seconds to go, Ryan Olsen lifted a backhanded past Hogue to put the visitors ahead 3-1 after 40 minutes of play. Kelowna held a slight 23-22 edge in shots.

In the third, the Rockets would score a couple of more goals to put this game to rest.. Jeese Lees scored to make it 4-1 Kelowna and then about four minutes after that, Damon Severson ripped a shot by Hogue to make it 5-1 Rockets. That was it for this game. The Rockets would skate away with their 18th win in their last 20 games. Despite the loss, the Hurricanes out shot Kelowna 34-30. The loss drops the Canes record to 9-31-2-3 in 45 games this season. The Canes power play let them down in this game. They finished the night 0/6 on the man advantage while the Rockets were 1/1.

McColgan on Waivers

General Manager Brad Robson joined me during the second intermission Friday to talk about trade deadline. He says Shane McColgan, who the Hurricanes acquired rights to from Portland this week was put on and cleared waivers Friday night. Robson says McColgan will now likely play in the BCHL. His Junior "A" rights are held by the Vernon Vipers. Teams are only allowed to carry three overage players. This leaves Lethbridge with Brady Ramsay, Seth Swenson, and Josh Derko as the team's 20 year olds for the rest of the year. Robson also said Derko had knee surgery this week and could be pack in sometime in the next 4 to 5 weeks if all goes well.

Next Up

The Hurricanes are back on home ice tomorrow (Jan. 11) when they host the Edmonton Oil Kings. The Canes have one victory in three games this season against their Central Division opponents. Game time is 7:00 pm MST. The pre-game show on CJOC at 6:30.  The Hurricanes will play host to the rival Medicine Hat Tigers on Tuesday (Jan. 14) After that, it's on the road for 5 straight games.

Thanks,
Pat

7 comments:

  1. The Canes deserve a loud cheer and standing ovation after the great effort they gave tonight. let's not forget the Rockets are ranked the number one team in the whole CHL and they have all been together for the whole season whereas the Canes have had multiple changes. The present team is playing heads and shoulders better now .Could it be that management and the coaches are on the right track? Seems like that to me .And young Jonny and a huge game in net. To battle this team to a one goal tie for 38:45 is superb. Keep it going for the rest of this season .Next year will be great if we stay the course and be patient.

    ReplyDelete
  2. they did play a great game against a very good rocket team and jonny was amazing. also really liked the three new canes for the simple reason that they played hard and their size work to their advantage for the type of game the canes play..great pickup imo...things are going to get better in the years to come if we stay on track..bob

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love the optimism! Nice to find positives in a 5-1 loss. Hopefully the team has hit rock bottom and will continue to improve. Next year with some luck we can bubble into the playoffs! Assessing our key trades over the last year…. Jay Merkley for Derko…oops…Ryon Pilon for?????…oh yea Walters, Corbin Boes instead of Kale Clague…oops…on and on and on. Oh well... Our 2 high draft picks that we still have…Duke by the numbers has been inconsistent and yet has underachieved…Estaphan has not been the top 16 year old in the league for sure but has shown some offensive flare at times…time will tell. Despite this I think the team is playing better. No we are not elite but should get better. The kids have played hard lately and certainly its more entertaining despite the losing. Keep the expectations modest and accept things for what they are for now. Good job Brad! Go Canes Go!!

    ReplyDelete
  4. We were very impressed by the play of Hogue. He had some huge saves. The team played well over all. I think when Kelowna scored those two fast goals at the end of the second, the Hurricanes allowed that to play with their heads as the defense in particular just wasn't the same in the third period. I doubt it will happen but I'd sure like to see Hogue get another shot tonight against Edmonton.

    -cc

    ReplyDelete
  5. The reason Kelowna is No.1 in the CHL is obvious. They are a very good team. I was impressed with the effort put forth by the Canes. You can see the improvement in them each and every game. to compare the Canes from the start of the season, even over the last few years, and to this game there is no comparison. It is night and day for the better.

    Thought Lil Jonny played a whale of a game. The time in the AJHL did help him. I think he earned another start tonight.

    The new additions contributed last night even with the minimal time with Canes arriving the day of the game.

    Looking forward to tonight.

    A View from Above

    ReplyDelete
  6. Absolutely, Hogue was brilliant, especially considering the only two regular season WHL games he has seen were Season Opener against Tigers ... followed by months... then the highest ranked junior hockey team in the country... on TV...last night! First period, despite being outchanced about 10 to 1 was really exciting!

    Great crowd count, especially considering it was televised!

    Nice that the Canes acknowledged Estephan and his performance at the U17 during the pre-game festivities... better one game late, than never! (Would have been more powerful for OUR team had they made this announcement in his FIRST game back, when he wouldn't have had to share the spotlight with the opposition team's Merkley?)

    Robson explained where McColgan went during the interview, but what is still boggling my mind is WHY on God's green earth he agreed to take McColgan as part of the trade package IN THE FIRST PLACE!! Why didn't he ask for an asset (player or pick) that the organization could actually use? It still seems like a completely brain-dead move to me... one that just created more work for him to place him on waivers...then to Vernon Vipers...

    Since the question was NOT asked of him, .... would somebody please clue me in as to how Robson thought this "asset" was going to be of ANY benefit to the Canes since he knew that he already HAD the maximum league allowed three 20 year olds on his roster.... He made it sound like Derko's surgery and recovery agenda was known to him already, AND he had ZERO days left until the trade deadline to shop him around to receive a usable asset? So WTFWHT??!! Why not get a draft pick or the tender he got later, instead?

    Richie

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. McClogan was a throw in so Portland could clear a 20yr old spot. The 2nd round pick was the only asset in this deal, it would be nice of Robson would've just came out and said that. Unless of course he actually expected McClogan to come here which would be dreaming.

      Derek Sutton

      Delete