LETHBRIDGE - Russ Maxwell and Phil Tot each scored and Damien Ketlo was the difference in goal as the Lethbridge Hurricanes beat the Moose Jaw Warriors 2-1 Tuesday night at the ENMAX Centre.
A much better start in this game for the Lethbridge Hurricanes. As opposed to the last game the Canes and Moose Jaw played on the weekend where Warriors had a 4-0 lead after one, Lethbridge managed to keep the Warriors off the score sheet in the opening 20 minutes of this hockey game. The Hurricanes only had a couple of chances themselves. The game remained scoreless after 20 minutes. The shots favoured Moose Jaw 10-3 after one period.
In the second, it looked like the game would remain scoreless heading into the final period, until the Hurricanes opened the scoring with a goal in the last minute. Sam McKechnie held the puck
in along the boards and fired it on goal where Russ Maxwell was there to tap in a backhander, beating Luke Siemens and giving Lethbridge a 1-0 lead after 40 minutes of play. That was Maxwell's 11th of season. Moose Jaw held a big edge in shots, 26-11 after two periods of play. Damien Ketlo was outstanding in goal for the Hurricanes stopping everything fired his way up to this point in the game.
In the third, the Warriors would tie the game at 1-1. Off a face-off, Cody Beach snapped a rolling puck over the shoulder of Ketlo, to even the game about 5 minutes in the period. Just past the midway of the period the Hurricanes would take the lead on a lucky bounce. Phil Tot snapped the puck toward the Moose Jaw goal, banking it off a Warrior player for his 14th of the season to give Lethbridge a 2-1 lead. Moose Jaw pressed hard in the final 8 minute to tie, but the Hurricanes were able to hold of the late attack and beat the Warriors 2-1. The Hurricanes were heavily out shot, 38-17. Moose Jaw went 0/5 on the power play, while the Canes finished the night 0/2. The victory improves the Canes overall record to 27-39-0-1 on the season and also improves their home record to an even .500 at 17-17.
The Hurricanes called up forward Reid Duke for Tuesday's game. This was his 8th game with the Canes this season. He had 5 points in the 7 games he played previously this season. With Duke's Midget AAA team done for the year, he's eligible to remain with the Hurricanes for the remainder of this season. Craig Leverton and Brady Ramsay missed the Tuesday game, still out with injury, while Jaimen Yakubowski was out sick. Brody Sutter played for the first time in a week, after missing the previous three road games with back spasms.
NEXT UP
The Hurricanes will play game two of this three game home stand Friday (Mar. 9) when they host the Calgary Hitmen. The two clubs will play one last time next Wednesday at Saddledome. Game time Friday from the ENMAX Centre in 7:00 pm (MST). The pre-game show on CJOC at 6:30. Lethbridge will welcome rival Medicine Hat on Saturday (Mar. 10)
Thanks,
Pat
The views expressed on this blog are those of the moderator and contributors and are not endorsed by 94.1 CJOC or the Lethbridge Hurricanes.
WOW Ketlo! What a performance!
ReplyDeleteWOW Duke! Every time I see this kid play, I wonder just how good he and Merkley could be together if we are SMART enough to keep both for the next 4 seasons!! In just eight games this year Duke has 2G 3A 5P +1 and he JUST turned 16!! He created a few very nice scoring chances in this game where we had very few as a team and he only had a handful of shifts! - Richie.
Ketlo was superb again tonight. We lucked out when we got him this year and it is just too bad we can't keep him a year or two more. Hood blocked a big shot and still made a difference on the play after despite being in obvious pain. The young guys continue to impress. While I am not as sold on Merkley as you are Richie I agree that Duke is going to be a long term asset for the Hurricanes. Job well done tonight by the entire team.
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Great road game at home! Ketlo was fantastic and I thought the defense did a much better job in front of the net than the game in MJ that I saw on the internet.
ReplyDeleteDuke looked good again. I think Merkely is going to need a strong offseason to reach his potential. He has had first line minutes recently and has looked out of place...not quick, not physical. Preston is giving him the opportunity and he is not siezing it and needs to get more involved at both ends of the ice. If you had to rank the 16 year olds performance this year I would say his would be behind Watson and Erkamps in terms of effort and development. The good news is he is young and has skill. It will be interesting to see if the Canes can find a goalie in the offseason to match Ketlo's performance of this year...it has to be a priority as he has won a number of games for the Canes...looking forward to the home weekend finale!
TD
This was not the most exciting game at the Enmax this year. But, sure can not say enough about the play of Ketlo! He was outstanding. Love watching Duke, he does not look out of place out there. He is going to be an excellent player in the future.
ReplyDeleteThought Erkammps and Henry both had a very good night. They will be the core of the defence in the future.
Good job Canes. Hopefully they finish off the year at the Enmax with two wins.
As good as Ketlo has been for this team, I'm still confused as to why Liston remains on the bench? I've heard Coach Chismore talk about his inconsistent play, but that is quite irrelevant on a non-playoff team. The organization NEEDS to see what Liston will bring to the table next year and give him the on-ice minutes he needs to NOT be inconsistent. This is the only way we're going to know if he can take the baton and run with it next year.
ReplyDeleteI fail to understand the philosophy behind playing Ketlo at this stage of the season? Worst-case scenario is getting 15 games into next season and realizing we don't have an experienced goalie who can carry the load. We've been through this that the past two seasons already.
Darren
Have to agree with Darren, also it is my understanding Kovacs is with the team and could also be getting into a couple games.
ReplyDeleteConsidering we have been out of the playoff hunt for a long time and we have only one tender eligible to return next year, it makes very little sense to continue to ride the tender moving on. (Though I would love to hear Preston's reasons).
ReplyDeleteCan someone please explain the "instigator" penalty to me?
Moose Jaw's Henry grabbed on to Galbraith immediately after he threw his second big bodycheck of the shift, referee Lawrence watched the entire thing unfold, yet he calls them each for 5!? WTF!!!???? This should have been a no-brainer for Lawrence, and instead he just proved he has no brain!
EVERY time the scenario is reversed, we seem to get 2/5/10! Do you have to whisper the password into the refs ear to avoid the instigator, or what??!!
EVERY time a fighter initiates a fight following a big hit, it has been and should be instigating, so why the exception here? You could run this shift and fight as a training video for referees on what constitutes instigating!
The inconsistency with the WHL refs starts at the top and until they get rid of whoever is leading these fools, they will continue to lose credibility and fan support. - Richie.
Just a question for Darren and I am not asking this to be an a**. Why do you think we should play Liston but when I said we should play our young guys in all situation you talk to me like I am crazy? This was a good win for the team. Now for a good weekend to close out the home games.AJ
ReplyDeleteI think we need to trust the coaches on Liston. He started in PA and MJ but was pulled on 3 goals on 8 shots in Moose Jaw. We don't know what the issues are. My bet is he gets the start against Calgary Friday and Ketlo gets the last home game on Sat. They will definitly need to bring in some serious competition to push him for next season as he has not earned the starting job by any means and he had the opportunity to shine. We should also remember that Ketlo is playing for spot in the pros or University next year too. TD
ReplyDeleteAJ......The difference between giving the rookies more ice time (Watson, Merkley, and a couple of 17 year olds) and Liston is two-fold. One, I want to see if Liston can play a consistent game from one night to the next. I would think the organization would want this too, but apparently, they're not overly concerned or .....I'm not sure why they won't continue to put him in??
ReplyDeleteThe second is that if you put the rookies out against the other teams top lines, you risk having the rookies giving up a barrage of goals plus, exposing them to players much bigger in size and experience. I'm not saying that giving up the goals is a bad thing when the team is already out of the playoffs, but to continue to subject young (inexperienced) players to that type of dominant opposition isn't psychologically healthy. It will begin to wear on them and they'll start questioning their abilities, their coaches, and most everything they're doing. The other part of my answer is because some of the top lines in the league that they'd be facing have some big players on them. Putting the youngsters out against Stone and Ferland (Brandon) is a physically brutal match-up and we would be risk injuring one of our young players.....possibly quite seriously (ie. concussions). Remember, Merkley had a concussion early in the year. Also remember, if they are out there against the other top forward lines, they're also out there against the other top defence pairing. Not sure if you realize just how big Dylan McIrath (Moose Jaw) is, but he's a monster and could inflict some serious damage to a small/young forward if he catches him in his crosshairs (so to speak).
Don't get me wrong, they need experience (and Preston seems to be giving them more....at least on the PP), but the coaches have to be careful not to have them on the ice against the wrong lines. As an example, Mark Stone and Michael Ferland (Brandon) are both well over 6' and 200lbs and I just think that is a really poor match up for our youngsters. Heck, our older players didn't deal with them well. They got their asses handed to them here as well as in Brandon (with and without Sutter).
Anyway, that's my take on why it's important to give the rookies experience, but it has to be given to them at the right times in the right match-ups.
Maybe putting it in a different way might help in the form of a question.....why don't Gr. 10's get more playing time than Gr. 12's (any sport). The Gr. 10's get playing time, just not as much as the 11's and 12's. They get just enough to give them a taste and then they have to sit down and watch how it should be done by the older players (after a young player has come off the ice is where the coaches should be coaching them).
I think the reason I jumped on you earlier is because it seemed like that was your only comment for many games in a row. I think I became tired of reading the same type of comment, so I apologize if I came across as rude. Nothing I print on here is personal, so never take them as such....and I'll try to reread my posts so I don't use offensive words (if I did). Darren
Hey Darren it is just a difference in coaching philosophy. I see the skill level these kids have and feel they need to play to learn and yes some of them may get hurt but any of them can. Look what happened to Fyten. AJ
ReplyDeleteAJ.....Another part of this philosophy is that you can't give your rookies more ice time than the veterans or the vets won't want to play anymore and will shut down. The rookies have to spend their time learning and it can't all be done on the ice. Some of it has to be done on the bench, in practice and in video sessions. Darren
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