Hurricanes soak in playoff lessons

By Lethbridge Herald on May 1, 2025.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward Lethbridge Hurricanes Noah Chadwick attempts to keep the puck away from Liam Ruck of the Medicine Hat Tigers during Game 4 of the WHL's Eastern Conference final on Wednesday.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Herald

The Lethbridge Hurricanes playoff run ended at the hands of the Medicine Hat Tigers on Wednesday night in the Eastern Conference final and the club soaked a lot of lessons in from the series and the playoff run in general.

“It was a quick turnaround for us,” said Canes head coach Bill Peters, on his thoughts on the series  and in reference to playing a Game 7 on a Wednesday and beginning a conference final on the Friday.

“We played on a Wednesday, and travelled in Thursday and played Friday and  probably guilty of taking a breath there a little bit and trying to get recharged. And  I thought we were better after the day off for Games 3 and 4 but by then it was too big of (a) hole.”

Captain Noah Chadwick was proud of how the team.

“We got better from round one to two,” said Chadwick.

“We had a good series against Calgary and I’m proud for the way  that we faced a couple elimination games and we stayed alive and bonded together. I just think it wasn’t fully there for us in this round and that’s unfortunate.”

Chadwick said it’s harder than you think.

“It’s the hardest thing you can do,  to win a championship,” said Chadwick.

“It shows you that it’s that much harder every day, every day that  you keep going,  it’s hard on your mind and on your body ,and it just keeps kind of putting you down ,and you just have to keep getting up day after day and it’s hard.”

It was a big step to get to the third round for the Canes.

“A lot of guys were really hungry this year to do that and really proud of the way that those guys carried their load around here and the way we pushed together,” said Chadwick.

The Canes put a good push on in later stages  of Game 4  to try and keep their season alive

“They pushed in the third, there was some pride definitely there and we wanted to extend it ” said Peters.

“So didn’t get that one  that we needed, whether it’s 6-on-5 or after Willy’s (Anthony Wilson) goal, (it) would’ve been nice to get a little more zone time. But give them credit, they defended hard.”