Hurricanes ready for busy weekend

By Lethbridge Herald on October 9, 2025.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Hurricanes have a busy stretch of games over the Thanksgiving weekend as they will play three games in four nights.

Lethbridge begins with  a back-to-back situation as they host the Portland Winterhawks tonight followed by the Red Deer Rebels on Saturday.

The Canes are hosting a Portland squad that is well-coached, are very detailed in their play and have good pace to their game

“We have to be ready to match that pace,” said Ryan Aasman, Canes assistant coach.

“We also have to have the puck on our stick and if we don’t have the puck on our stick, we have to really work to get it back because they’re going to skate with the puck and pucks are going to end up in better spots with them.”

The Canes are expected to be in a tight forechecking affair with Red Deer.

“We both play  similar styles in terms of playing hard and  trying to put pucks in a better spot  behind D’s  (defencemen) and it turns into more of a forechecking game,” said Aasman.

“I expect a Red Deer team that’s really hungry to play against us after their effort on Tuesday. They’re looking to turn a corner too. We have some confidence against them, so we have to find a way to maintain that.”

Forward Shane Smith spoke about how the team can build off of Tuesday’s win in Red Deer.

“That brings a little bit of confidence to get back in the win column ,” said Smith.

“But also, just  leaving that in the past and the next day is a new day and just trying to continue to build every day and get better.”

Lethbridge lost their lone meeting to Portland 6-3 last November, while they are 1-1 against the Rebels this season after losing 4-2 on Sept. 27 and then following that with a 3-2 win  on Oct. 7.

The Canes conclude the weekend at the Edmonton Oil Kings on Monday afternoon.