Hurricanes look to tidy up game after opening weekend

By Lethbridge Herald on September 22, 2025.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Hurricanes opened their WHL season with a split against the Calgary Hitmen over the weekend and while the team saw improvement, there is tidying up to do in the club’s game ahead of their next game on Friday.

“I liked our defensive game,” said Matt Anholt, Canes head coach.

“I thought our neutral zone forecheck and our ‘D’  (defensive) zone coverage systems (were) really good.”

The Canes had to endure timely mistakes.

“Most of the mistakes were not getting above people on the track and our reloads weren’t hard enough at moments where we gave up too many 2-on-1s, which happened on Friday,” said Anholt.

Anholt thought on Saturday the club tightened up more defensively.

“Especially five-on-five early,” said Anholt.

“I think in the first 40, we didn’t give them much at five-on-five and then in the third period Koen (Cleaver) was excellent and really saved our butt.”

Anholt, however, wants to see more depth scoring behind their leaders.

“And try to create a little more inside (of) whatever our bottom three lines would be,” said Anholt.

The Canes will relish the practice time this  week before they hit the ice again for their next games against the Saskatoon Blades on Friday night at home and on the road against the Red Deer Rebels on Saturday.

“(It is) nice that we got three more practices to keep knocking the cobwebs out … (and) get to more and more structure and lots of things we need to work on,” said Anholt.

Anholt wants the Canes to work on a cleaner look to their identity this week.

“I think we want to be a hard-working group, every team does, but we have some certain areas that  we  need to just clean up on,” said Anholt.

“I think our transition play can get a lot cleaner, you know, forwards working without the puck and  ‘D’(defencemen) hitting the forwards when they want it.”

Veteran Luke Cozens saw discipline as an issue.

“I think we gotta work on that for sure,” said Cozens, who had a two-goals and an assist in Saturday’s game.

“There’s a lot of stuff we gotta work on but I think it was a good start for us.”

Cozens liked the response in Saturday’s win after losing their home opener on Friday.

“I think when you can respond like that, it kinda sets a good tone for the rest of the season,” said Cozens.

New Cane Hudson Kibblewhite,  who scored two goals in his regular season debut on Friday, thinks the lines are still getting comfortable with one another.

“Everyone’s trying to get comfortable with each other,” said Kibblewhite.

“Obviously you wanna get clicking and keep moving forward but yeah I feel like once we get something going here, we’ll be going for sure.”