Saturday 19 December 2015

WHL FINAL: Hurricanes 3 & Edmonton 1

No stopping the Lethbridge Hurricanes heading into the WHL's Christmas break.

The Canes improved to 4-1 on a six game pre-Christmas road trip with a 3-1 victory at Rexall Place in Edmonton Friday night. The win keeps the Canes in a three way tie for first place in the Eastern Conference with Red Deer and the Calgary Hitmen.

The difference in this game was really the first period when the Canes jumped out to a 2-0 lead, because that second goal turned out to be the game winner when it was all said and done. The Canes opened the scored at the 11:26 mark when Barrett Sheen scored his 3rd of the season making it 1-0 Lethbridge. The Hurricanes jumped ahead by a pair exactly two minutes later when Ryley Lindgren scored his 15th of the season. That made it 2-0 Hurricanes after 20 minutes of play.

In the second, the Oil Kings finally got on the score board. Brandon Baddock beat Stuart Skinner for what would be the only time in the game, cutting the Lethbridge lead to 2-1. There was no other scoring in the period.

In the third, Edmonton pushed for the tying goal, but Skinner and the Hurricanes managed to shut the door. The Canes iced this one when Andrew Nielsen scored his 9th of the season into an empty net with just a few seconds to go and the Hurricanes would skate away with a 3-1 victory.

The win improves their overall record to 23-11 on the season. Only the Kelowna Rockets in the West have a better record than the Hurricanes with one game left before the week-long Christmas break, a break the Canes have more than earned this season.

Edmonton out shot the Hurricanes 36-27 in this game. The Canes went 0/5 on the power play and Edmonton 0/3.

The Canes have a big game Saturday, closing out this road trip in Red Deer. The Hurricanes have two wins against the Rebels this season already, both coming in Lethbridge. This will be a big test for the Canes, playing in Red Deer, this season's home of the Memorial Cup coming up in May. After Saturday's game, the Hurricanes don't play again until December 27th when they travel to Medicine Hat to take on the rival Tigers.

Thanks,
Pat

2 comments:

  1. Watched the game, and the Canes were very lucky to win this game. Out-shot, out-worked, and yet they hung on. Great that they won, but yet disappointing that they continue to give up so many odd-man rushes and good scoring chances.

    Oil Kings shots were not good when they had their best chances (and they had more scoring chances than Lethbridge), and Skinner was really good to allow only one goal.

    Sheen's line hardly played between their goal and the last shift of the game when they almost scored again. Lindgren's game winning goal in the first was a 1/1000 fluke.

    The Canes seem to have a roster of magicians so I hope I am wrong, but after consecutive wins against the Rebels already this year, the Canes are going to need to pull a lot of rabbits to beat that team for a third time if the team that played in Edmonton shows up again in Red Deer today.

    Regardless of outcome tonight, will be a VERY well deserved Christmas break for these hard working Canes players - EXCELLENT half season! THANK YOU for some very entertaining hockey, players and coaches!!

    Glass-Still-Well-Over-Half-Full

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  2. I am happy to see that there are rabbits everywhere in Red Deer so far tonight! What an outstanding hockey game!

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