Hurricanes Beat Cougars 4-1

LETHBRIDGE - Two early goals in the second period helped the Hurricanes to a 4-1 victory of Prince George last night at the ENMAX Centre.

After a scoreless first 18 minutes of the game, the Hurricanes opened the scoring when Austin Fyten scored his team leading 6th goal of the season scored with less than two minutes remaining in the period to give the Hurricanes 1-0 lead in their 2010-2011 season opener at the ENMAX Centre. The Canes' out shot P.G. 9-7 in the opening 20 minutes. Prior to the start, the Canes' home opener included the announcement of the their players to the Lethbridge for the first time this year complete with pyrotechnics.

In the second, Lethbridge took a 2-0 lead very quickly. Jacob Berglund scored his 3rd ofyear just 23 second in to give the Canes' a two goal cushion. Not too long after that, the Hurricanes would grab a 3-0 lead when Alex Kuvaev fed a great pass to Derek Ryckman who put it top shelf on P.G. goalie James Priestner. The game had to be stopped after that goal because of very warm conditions in the ENMAX Centre that was starting to impact the ice. From that point on though no more scoring in the second period. The Hurricanes would take a 3-0 lead into the dressing room after 40 minutes. The Cougars out shot Lethbridge 13-7 in the second. After two, Prince George held the edge in shot 20-16.

In the third, the Hurricanes would put the nail in the Cougars coffin. Jacob Berglund scored his second of the night just two minutes into the period when he tipped in a Daniel Johnston point shot to give Lethbridge a 4-0 lead. That would be all the Hurricanes would need as they improve to 3-2-0-1 with a 4-1 victory. Brandon Anderson has a fantastic game in goal for Lethbridge again. He stopped 33 shots for the win. The only shot that beat him came with 0.7 seconds left in the game when a backhander from Brett Connonlly beat Anderson to break the shutout bid. The Hurricanes finished 0/6 on the power play while P.G. went 1/7. The three stars were: 1. Brandon Anderson 2. Jacob Berglund 3. Alex Kuvaev. The Hurricanes had great attendance for their home opener. Just under 4400 people packed the ENMAX on what was a warm October evening across southern Alberta. That also made for very warm conditions inside the building.

In my pre-game chat last night with Head Coach & G.M. Rich Preston we talked a bit about the trade this week of Brennan Yadlowski to Everett. He says he's happy how players like Johnston, Oslanski, Ryckman and Jackson have progressed along with the veteran defencemen. He says they've all earned more ice time. Preston also said when it comes acquiring the high-end draft pick from the Silvertips (second rounder in 2011), it doesn't mean that something might happen in the near future in terms of picking up another player.

Injury Update

Mark Reners and Brody Sutter were the Hurricans injured scratches last night. Reners is still a week or more away still out with a knee injury. As for Sutter, Rich Preston told us earlier in the week that he was likely going to play, but his shoulder injury isn't fully healed yet, so he had to sit last night out too. Brady Ramsey was a healthy scratch last night.

Next Up

The Hurricanes are back at it tonight when the host the Kootenay ICE at the ENMAX Centre. This will be the first of six meetings this season between the Canes' and ICE. Kootenay is 2-2 to start the season in their first four games of the year. The ICE have one of the more veterans teams in the WHL right now and are lead by defenceman Brayden McNabb. We'll also get our first look at new ICE Head Coach Kris Knoblauch bench Kootenay bench. Game time is 7:00 pm (MDT). Fred Jack and I will have the pre-game show on CJOC starting at 6:30.

Thanks,
Pat

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