Hurricanes with pair of divisional games on docket this weekend

By Lethbridge Herald on October 3, 2025.

Nathan Reiter

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Hurricanes are hoping a pair of divisional games this weekend will help the team climb the Eastern Conference standings early in the season.

Lethbridge will take on their Highway 3 rival Medicine Hat Tigers (2-1-0-0) on home ice tonight before travelling to Calgary (2-1-0-0) for a Sunday afternoon matinee at the Saddledome. 

The Hurricanes will play a total of eight games in 15 days to begin their schedule in the month of October. Assistant coach Ryan Aasman says Lethbridge is looking forward to the challenge. 

“It’s going to be a really good test. This is a hard month for us with the younger group. But I think it’s great that the younger guys learn kind of how the league operates. We’ve seen a lot of Calgary lately. Obviously, a new coaching staff there that has done a really good job and is still a very detailed team that plays hard and has young guys that have stepped up and have given them points and have contributed, which is good. Medicine Hat is the same, but their style of play is a little different. They’re going to come at you with a ton of pace and skill and want to play off the rush. For us, it’s a great challenge on how to manage and hold onto pucks, but also how hard do we want to work without the puck to alleviate their rush game.”

For Hurricanes assistant captain Shane Smith, tonight’s contest will have a little extra special meaning. Smith was acquired from the Tigers in a trade last season that sent netminder Harrison Meneghin back to Medicine Hat.

“(There’s) definitely a little extra motivation.” Smith explained about facing his former team. “They’re important divisional games. Every game’s a big game for us. But those divisional ones, even more so. So I’m really looking forward to the weekend.”

The Hurricanes currently sit in ninth place in the WHL’s Eastern Conference with a record of 1-3-0-0 through their first four games of the season. Lethbridge is coming off a weekend where they lost 5-3 at home to the Saskatoon Blades last Friday and suffered a 4-2 road setback against the Red Deer Rebels.

In all three games they’ve lost this season, Lethbridge has been tied after two periods of play and have allowed an empty net goal. 

But with a full week of practice under their belt, Aasman says Lethbridge is hoping to iron out the fine details that could prove to be the difference in games. 

“We’ve been in the games. I think you look at Friday (against Saskatoon), you get off to a good lead and then we shoot ourselves in the foot, so you learn there. We go into Red Deer the next night and it’s a bit of a trap game. They didn’t play, they’re sitting there waiting for us, and we got to travel. It’s a 2-2 game for the majority of the night and you’ve got a 16-year-old goalie that goes toe-to-toe with an NHL signed guy. I thought there was tons of positives there. It’s a bit of a college week against this week where we can work on things. We’ll show a lot of the good, but keep tapping into our details that need to continue to get better. Our face off details, how we play without the puck, even how we transition pucks has to come a farther way.” 

Puck drop is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the VisitLethbridge.com Arena. 

Icings: 

According to the WHL Weekly Report, import forward Mykolas Skadauskas has returned from an upper body injury. Forward Easton Daneault is listed as day-to-day with a lower body injury. 

Hurricanes goaltending prospect Brody Rotar signed with the Creston Valley Thundercats of the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League earlier this week. Rotar appeared in one preseason game for Lethbridge before being reassigned.