LETHBRIDGE - A huge first period helped the Lethbridge Hurricanes to 6-1 victory over the Regina Pats Friday night at the ENMAX Centre.
It didn't take long for the Hurricanes to get going in this game and they blew things wide open early. Three minutes into the period, Reid Duke fired a pass off the half wall right to Jamal Watson who buried his 4th of the season to give Lethbridge a 1-0 lead Shortly after that, the Canes would go up by a pair when Russ Maxwell knocked home his 10th of the season on the power play to give Lethbridge a quick 2-0 lead. They weren't done there. Jay Merkley would extend his point scoring streak to 7 games when he scored his 5th of the year. That made it 3-0 Hurricanes less than 10 minutes into the game. The Pats called a timeout after that, it seemed to work as Colton Mayor moved in a lifted a backhander over Rimmer to cut the Canes lead to 3-1. Before the end of the period, the Canes would get one more on yet another man advantage, this time Sam McKenchnie tap in his 9th goal of the season to give the home team a commanding 4-1 lead after 20 minutes of play. The Canes dominated Regina in this period, out shooting the Pats 20-4.
In the second, the Pats would come out with a goalie change as Matt Hewitt would replace Teigan Sacher who allowed those 4 goals back in the first period. That didn't make much of a difference for the Pats. Jamal Watson soon scored his 2nd of the game and 5th of the season to extend the Hurricanes lead to 5-1. Regina really couldn't find an answer to the Hurricanes play through 40 minutes. Lethbridge out shot the Pats 24-10 in that period and 44-13 through two periods of periods.
In the third, the Hurricanes would get one more on the man advantage when Ryan Pilon's shot went off a Regina defenceman and in to give the Canes a 6-1 lead. That put the nail in the Pats coffin. When it was all said and done, the Hurricanes would out shoot Regina 55-29 in this game. Lethbridge went 3/7 on the power play and Regina 0/5 with the man advantage. The victory improves the Hurricanes record to 7-7-1 on the season. It was an outstanding effort from the Hurricanes from start to finish in this hockey game and were full value for the victory. The Canes have won 4 of their last 6 games.
Assistant Coach Chris Chisamore said it plain and simple on the CJOC post game show.........."that was fun to watch!". I don't know if I could've said it any better myself. This team has done a complete 180 in the past 3 weeks. They're scoring plenty of goals, getting great goaltending, the power play has been clicking lately, and the confidence level is probably the highest it's been with this team in the last 3 years.
KEY HOME GAMES
Head Coach and GM Rich Preston talked about the importance of this home stand during the pre-game show Friday. "We have to make hay here at home. It's imperative we take advantage of our schedule because it's tough to win on the road. That's way these 6 home games are so important. You've got to win your home games. You don't want to sit in a spot where you're fighting during each home game."
NEXT UP
The Hurricanes will play game two of this current home stand on Saturday (Oct. 27) when they host the visiting Swift Current Broncos. The Canes blanked the Broncos 4-0 in Swift Current earlier this week. Game time is 7:00 pm MDT. The pre-game show on CJOC at 6:30. The Hurricanes will have a few days off after this game and will be back in action Tuesday (Oct. 30) as they welcome the struggling Vancouver Giants to town.
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.
55 shots, NICE! Canes were fast and relentless!
ReplyDeleteThe Canes were very disciplined in this game. 5 minors were called against them, of which only 3 were actual infractions.
The whining of the desperate Pats coaching staff coupled with the inconsistent weak-minded and idiotic-stripes gave the Pats some undeserved PP opportunities that could have gotten them back into this game that they were NEVER in. Stephenson will be dreaming of a close-up of an empty 4' x 6' for weeks!!
"ROUGHING" on Sweetish-Axel as he was being illegally held was a joke! The NON-Call for instigating on Stephenson for skating across the ice to challenge Hood IMMEDIATELY after Hood lays out a Pat!!?? Why even have the penalty in the rule book if these loser-officials are going to ignore the obvious infraction!? - THIS IS WHY PLAYERS GET HURT! Players see that they can get away with things, so they PUSH it a bit further, next thing you know, a player is leaving the ice on a stretcher!
I am sure that Maxwell had "Sherwood" stamped nine or ten times in the centre of his back, yet no call for any of these obvious cross-checks!? BRUTAL!
I wasn't at the game, but listened to Pat's broadcast and it sounded like the Canes played another intense game! The forecheck must've been working full bore! Good for them; I'm SO happy for the boys!
ReplyDeleteGood to see the PP/PK coming around as well as the shot totals staying under 30.
The interesting point for me will be to see if they can sustain that intensity for tonight's game. As I mentioned in the two back to back road games, it's hard to play them, especially for a young team.
Great effort, great win!
Darren
(Is it time to see Christopher Tai tonight? I think he needs to see some game action.)
Ya watched the Game and gotta say that was pure Domination. Pats had no answer and no chance in that game. Looking forward to Tonight's game. Should be interesting to see how Swift Current responds to being shutout in there own building.
ReplyDeleteI heard an NHL head coach once say "a head coach gets way to much credit when everything is working great and way to much blame when there going badly"
Just my 2 cents.
GO CANES GO!!!!
Peter T
Another hustle and puck pressure win. Great job boys. Apparently there are a few people that think there are to many negative coments even after the canes win. I for one feel that most of those comments are constructive and not negative, ex. me saying Russ needs to keep his stick to himself so he stops taking tripping and slashing penalties. Some of us said we need to play the young guys more and wow pp and pk time for some of them. After the game Chis said they would keep playing Rimmer until they could tell he was tired or he says he needs a break. I feel they should have played Tai last night or at least put him in for the last 2 periods but Chis said it was never even discussed. Tai needs to play soon or go to his former team to get some ice time. Kovaks can come sit on the bench. Hopefuly Pilton will get some sort of suspension for what happened at the end of the game. At least 2 wicked cross-checks on Russ and then goes after Spencer. He should get at least 3 but that is only my opinion. AJ
ReplyDeleteGreat game all around. Probably the best Canes performance in the last 3 years? Special teams look much improved as they are moving the puck well. The team is finally transitioning from adump and chase and grind team to a puck possession and speed team. I always think good defence beats good offence and like our defence. They are winning battles moving the puck well and carrying it out of trouble as needed. Johnston as always leads the pack playing in all situations against the oppositions top players and still leading the team in plus minus. Blomquist is just consistent and reliable never turns the puck over and Pilon Hackman and Topping makes the future look very bright. Rimmer has been exactly as advertised as one of the best in the league. Our defensive play will tell us if we can play with top teams in the league and I think we can! TD
ReplyDeleteI agree with TD comments about the defence. The problem is Canes have too many. Cannot sit Topping every night so who do you sit? Problem gets worse with Henry coming back after Christmas? They will have to move a D man probably either Johnston Galbraith or Bloomquist. Tough call! John
ReplyDeleteAwesome game last night. Other than the Pats lone goal and maybe the first two minutes of the 2nd period it was complete Canes domination. Hood has looked much, much better the last two weeks. Merkley is playing like a first rounder and seems to be continually improving. It was nice to see him get a bunch of PK time last night. Pliton showed no class or character at the end of the game that's for sure. It also seems funny that he waited till Hood was out of the game to be a "tough guy" too. I do agree that Tai needs to see some ice sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteIf we have to move a d-man my call is Blomqvist. He is a decent d-man but there are too many times he looks or is lost. On more than one occasion last nivht he was almost at our bkueline leaving his d partner alone. AJ
ReplyDeleteWhy does Tai need to play? The kid's free to walk anytime if he'd rather start for a AAA midget team, and he hasn;t so far. Rimmer's not the only WHL goalie to start every game, and the schedule has broken nicely for the Hurricanes. Maybe he learns in practice and should probably start on the road first. Also, it's a team that just got to .500, they should probably wrap up that playoff spot before they start backups.
ReplyDelete