After a convincing win against the Medicine Hat Tigers, the Hurricanes made the short trip north to take on the Calgary Hitmen, full of confidence and raring to go after finding their team spirit and really starting to bond again.

Damien Ketlo has been outstanding in goal as he put on another world-class performance against the tabbies. The Hurricanes will be forced to split goalkeeping duties as they start the first of a six game road trip taking them to Prince George, Vancouver, Kamaloops and Kelowna before they return to the Enmax at the end of January. Liam Liston is assured of at least a couple of starts as Ketlo starts his 12th game in a row.

With 48 hours before the transfer deadline, this could be the last appearance for a couple of current Hurricanes, depending on what trades (if any) are made before the 10th.

In a game that heralded three more inductees into the Hurricanes/Broncos Hall of Fame, the Hurricanes so dearly wanted to win this game after having suffered back to back losses to the Tigers, home and away, and having owned them for most of 2011.

With Hurricane HOF inductees Jamie Pushor, Jason Ruff, and Bob Barlett in attendance, the boys got to see first hand the heights you can achieve after playing junior hockey in Lethbridge.

Much like the previous match up, this would be a hard fought and feisty game as both teams renew their rivalry live on Shaw TV as this is broadcast across the province.

What happened

After a spirit lifting win over the Kootenay Ice, beating them 7-2 in their first game of 2012, the Lethbridge Hurricanes made the trip north for their second game of the year to take on the Edmonton Oil kings.

Last time these teams met in Edmonton, the Canes won 4-3 then suffered a demoralising home loss, 10-3, days later.

The Canes were simply fantastic in their last game and if they could bring the same intensity to this game, they would be able to make the 10-3 loss nothing more than a distant memory.

Reid Duke was called up for his 7th game with the Canes still having a very short roster of players to call on, whilst Tyler Wong gets his 3rd call up.

What happened

A lively start to what was an even and well contested game for the first 9 minutes or so as both teams created chances, with nothing really to separate them.

Having lost the last 3 games, the Canes were looking to get back to winning ways and start 2012 off in the right fashion especially after dropping their last 2 games home and away to the Tigers. The Enmax which has been a fortress for the Canes recently, wasn't the happiest place last time around as they fell to the tabbies 5-2.

With the WHL transfer deadline day just 10 days away, the players had something to prove to ensure they stayed on the roster, so to a man this needed to be a strong performance.

First round draft pick, Reid Duke got called up for a 6th time after the Canes were given special dispensation by the WHL with injuries and having 3 players (Erkamps, Merkley and Leverton) playing at the word juniors. Harrison Harper also got another taste of life in the WHL as he was called up for this game.

Canes would have to work hard to get anything out of this game against a Kelowna Ice team that has won all 4 of the match ups this season.

Have you ever wondered how we provide the coverage of Hurricane hockey home and away? Well, since today is a rare Saturday off for the Hurricanes, I’m available to give you a rundown of what we do and some of the tools that we use.

For home games, we have a great view of the ice from our seats in the new Steve ‘Foggy’ Fallwell Media Centre:

Currently we work a rotation where one of three of us will be doing the game updates on a given night. When the Hurricanes are on the road, we need to rely on the WHL’s video feed from whl.neulion.com:

After having their six game home win streak unceremoniously snapped by the Tigers last night, the Hurricanes sought out a little revenge tonight at The Arena, where they’ve won twice already this season. With Tyler Kizuik returning from injury and Harrison Harper still in the line-up, the Hurricanes entered this game with nearly a complete roster. Beyond the motivation of playing the back half of a home and home with your bitter rivals, the Prince Albert Raiders have been playing strong hockey lately and managed to overtake the Hurricanes in the standings last night; there was plenty to get up for in this game tonight.

What happened

In the second game of the unofficial second half of the 2011/12 WHL season, the Canes returned to the Enmax looking to continue were they left off before the break and extend their winning record at home.

The Canes posted an impressive 9-1 in their last 10 home games, losing once to the Oil kings, having won the last 6 games at the Enmax centre.

Players looking to extend their hot streaks include; Nick Buonassisi who has 23 points in his last 20 games, Brody Sutter notching 13 in his last 10 and Russell Maxwell with 9 points in his last 6 games.

The Canes are unbeaten against the Tigers so far this season having beaten them twice, both games being played back in the Hatters backyard. This was the Tigers first visit to the Lethbridge this season as they looked to avenge the losses of 4-2 and 4-3, the first being the Tabbies season opener at the Medicine Hat Arena.

The WHL trade deadline is fast approaching, and after a quiet WHL transaction wire through most of December, the trades have now started to signal a beginning to the deadline season. As one of the teams likely to miss the playoffs the Hurricanes may be considered sellers when it comes to deadline day. Before we speculate as to what might happen for the Hurricanes prior to or on January 10, let’s take a look at Rich Preston’s trade history in the month or so leading up to the trade deadline for the last two years.

2009/10 Deadline

December 7

Hurricanes trade 2011 4th round pick (Matt Murray)
to Kootenay for Cason Machacek

December 9

Hurricanes trade Carter Ashton, Craig Orfino, 2010 3rd round pick (Kyle Burroughs)

Fresh off a brief Christmas break, the Hurricanes opened the unofficial second half of the season Tuesday evening in Cranbrook against the Kootenay Ice. As has been the case several times this season, the Hurricanes iced an incomplete line-up dues to a number of absences. Tyler Kizuik and Max Moline are still sidelined with injuries, Juraj Bezuch is out serving a suspension for the cipping major against Swift Current, and three outstanding rookies – Erkamps, Merkley, and Leverton – are in Windsor, Ontario to compete in the World U17 Hockey Challenge. Harrison Harper received the call-up for his WHL debut, bringing the Hurricanes to 16 skaters, two short of a full line-up.

What happened