PORTLAND, OR. - Three third period goals by the Winterhawks would lead Portland to a 4-2 lead over the Hurricanes Sunday night at the Rose Garden.The Winterhawks would get this first goal in this game. Just after a Hawks power play expired, Sven Bartschi beat Canes' goaltender Brandon Anderson into an open goal to give the home side a 1-0 lead. The Hurricanes came on late with a power play chance, but they were unable to even the score. The best chance was by Alex Kuvaev who was set up all alone out in front, but he had the puck roll off his stick and wide of the net. Some good chances by both teams in the first. Portland out shot Lethbridge 16-11.
In the second, Portland continued to pour it on. Lethbridge tied the game though when Alex Kuvaev scored his first WHL goal from Mike Sofillas. That evened the score at 1-1. Not too long after though the Canes' would be called for taking down a Hawk on a partial break-away and Portland would get a penalty shot. On that penalty shot, Brendan Leipsic made a great move on Anderson to give the Winterhawks a 2-1 lead. The Hurricanes would not quit and tied the game again a short time later when Austin Fyten scored his 5th goal of the season to even the game 2-2. The goals in the second would continue to come fast and furious. Portland would get two more pucks passed Anderson, one from Rutkowski and the other on a power play by Boychuk. That gave the Winterhawks a two goal cushion and a 4-2 lead after 40 minutes. The shots on goal after two periods favoured Portland 32-20. Anderson, despite allowing three goals in the second played very well once again.
In the third, Portland would go up 5-2 when Sven Bartschi scored his second of the night on a 5 on 3 power play. That would take the wind out of the sails for Lethbridge on this night. Portland added one more when Lethbridge native Brad Ross put the puck passed Anderson to seal it up and the Hawks would walk away with a 6-2 win. The Canes' were out shot 39-32 on the night. Lethrbidge went 0/6 on the PP while Portland finished the game 2/7. The game got a little chippy at the final buzzer when Cason Machacek mixed it up with one of the Winterhawks players. Penalties were assessed and the players would go their separate ways.
The Hurricanes coaching staff was clearly frustrated with some of the calls and/or non calls by the officials Sunday night. Two plays in particular upset the bench. The penalty shot call and an interference on Berglund while the Hurricanes were killing off a penalty. The loss drops the Hurricanes early season record to 2-2-0-1.
Next Up
The Hurricanes now have the next few days back at home to get ready for their home opener this Friday night at the ENMAX Centre. The Canes' are now done practicing at the Adams Ice Centre and will call the ENMAX home for the rest of the season. Lethbridge is now at home for the next two weeks in fact. They host Prince George and Kootenay this Friday and Saturday nights and next weekend it'll be Saskatoon and Regina paying visits to the ENMAX Centre. The Canes' won't hit the road again until October 18th when they head east to play in Regina, Saskatoon, and Prince Albert.
Hurricanes This Week
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Our third edition of Hurricanes This Week for the 2010/2011 season goes tonight on 94.1, CJOC. After a long week of travel and a 13 hour bus ride home from Portland, we'll have lots to talk about now that the first two weeks of the WHL season are in the books for the Hurricanes. Tonight on the program, Fred and I will be joined by Hurricanes Captain Mike Reddington. We'll also go to Calgary and speak with the Commissioner of the WHL Ron Robison and then in our final segment we will head west and talk with Jeff Holick, the radio voice of the Kooteney ICE to set up Saturday's match-up between the Hurricanes and the ICE. The show starts at 6pm (MDT) on CJOC. All podcasts for the talk show can be downloaded at some point every Tuesday from our website over there on right side of this blog. It can also be found on iTunes and the new CJOC iPhone app.Thanks,
Pat
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You would know better than the rest of us being that you were there to see all three US road games. I can only go by the stats, which speak loud and clear.
ReplyDeleteThe Hurricanes need more scoring and will likely have to deal to pick up one or two guys that can put the puck in the net on a regular basis.
The power play since going 3/6 in Calgary has now gone 0/17. They were outscored 11-5 on their US trip. The Hurricanes have scored 13 goals in 5 games and more than a third of them have come from one player, Austin Fyten. More consistent scoring is needed on the powerplay and 5 on 5. I would bet Preston is looking.
RJ
If Fyton gets hurt Canes will be in trouble.
ReplyDeleteR.J.
Fyten is not leaving anything undone and giving everything he has (in the games I saw online). With the hurt shoulder and the way he is playing, getting hurt is likely. Lots of heart and definately determined. When you start seeing guys trying to do everything themselves, you can't be a winning team. Whether that's others stepping up or the lines gelling better, I don't know, but one or two scorers and one goalie can't win you too many games. We need to be able to rely on all, not a few. Looking forward to this weekend! Go Canes!
ReplyDelete