Canes open season with win

By Lethbridge Herald on September 20, 2024.

Herald photo by Justin Seward Lethbridge Hurricanes goalie Brady Smith battles for positioning as Roan Woodward of the Edmonton Oil Kings looks for the puck during season-opening WHL action at VisitLethbridge.com Arena last month

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Hurricanes opened the season with a 3-1 win over the Edmonton Oil Kings on Friday night at VisitLethbridge.com Arena.

“I thought our forecheck was great tonight,” said Canes defenceman Kale Tipler.

“We were hard on pucks, … we had a lot of good ‘O’ (offensive) zone shifts  and then we were solid in the ‘D’ (defensive) zone when we needed to be.”

Hurricanes head coach Bill Peters thought the opening game of the season was good.

“I thought the guys played hard,” said Peters.

“I thought we (were) good on faceoffs, I thought we executed what we wanted to do there and therefore we had the puck as much we did throughout the game.”

The Hurricanes won 36 of the 53 faceoffs in the game.

After both teams got the feeling out process out of the way for the first half of the first period, it was the Oil Kings that struck first almost nine minutes into the opening frame.

Luke Hanson was able to break in and backhand it past Brady Smith at the 8:49 mark of the first period from Gavin Hodnett.

The Canes got back on even terms almost four-and-half-minutes into the second period when Logan McCutcheon cut in down the left wing and snapped it short side past Oil Kings goalie Kolby Hay on the powerplay.

Hayden Pakkala and Smith notched the assists.

The Canes got their second straight goal from a defencemen as Tipler found the back of the net 4:56 into the third period to give Lethbridge a 2-1 lead.

Pakkala and Luke Cozens assisted on Tipler first goal of the season.

Leo Braillard solidified the Canes win with an empty netter with five seconds to go.

Lethbridge went 1-for-3 while Edmonton went 0-for 2 on the powerplay.

Shots were 26-20 in favour of the Canes.  

The Hurricanes hit the road to face the Red Deer Rebels tonight.

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