Cranbrook, AB – Both the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Kootenay Ice entered tonight’s game with identical 1-2 records with the Canes coming off a loss to Edmonton Wednesday while the Ice posted their first win Friday over Regina. Generating enough scoring chances has been the Achilles heel for the Canes early on in the season and after getting outshot 60-20 Wednesday, we could expect to see a change tonight.

After the Canes couldn’t generate much on their first powerplay of the game, the Ice took advantage of theirs as Jagger Dirk beat Ty Rimmer at 7:37 on their 6^th shot on goal. The Canes would generate more chances as the period carried on including a great deke move by Jay Merkley, but his shot that beat Wyatt Hoflin went right through the goalie crease and out the other side. The first period ended with the Canes getting narrowly outshot 9-5 and they trailed 1-0.

The Canes came out with more jump in the second and early in the period had a 3 on 1 but Captain Graham Hood’s shot rang off the post keeping it a 1-0 game. Lethbridge would tie things up at 7:27 when Jaimen Yakubowski (Russ Maxwell) beat Hoflin making it 1-1. Lethbridge was generating more scoring chances but would find themselves down a goal again when Brock Montgomery gave the Ice a 2-1 lead. Kootenay would run into penalty trouble giving the Canes chances both 4 on 3 and 5 on 3 and they would capitalize on those opportunities. Dan Johnston who was making his regular season debut scored at 15:49 tying the game (assists to Russ Maxwell and Graham Hood), but another PPG less than 3 minutes later would give the Canes a 3-2 lead after 40 minutes thanks to the 1^st goal of the year from Maxwell (Johnston, Erkamps.) The Canes outshot the Ice 18-6 in the period and were 2/5 with the man advantage so far in the game.

In the third, the Ice would get a handful of chances, but it would be the Hurricanes adding some insurance on the PP when Maxwell lit the lamp for the 2^nd time on the night (his 4^th point in the game) making it a 4-2 game.  Things got ugly with just over a minute to play when Kootenay's Brock Montgomery skated by the Hurricanes bench after taking exception to an earlier hit and that drew 3 fights. When the dust settled it was the Canes improving to 2-2 on the season with the win. Lethbridge outshot Kootenay 29-18 and finished the night 3/8 on the powerplay while the Ice was 1 for 2. Tonight’s 3 Stars: #3 – Dan Johnston, #2 – Brock Montgomery, #1 – Russ Maxwell.

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The Hurricanes have a few days off before hitting the road for a brief 2 game in 2 night road trip south of the border. The Hurricanes will play the Tri-City Americans on October 5^th and the Chiefs on October 6^th before returning home. Game time both nights is 8:00pm MT and the pregame show with Pat Siedlecki on the home of the Hurricanes – 94.1 CJOC can be heard at 7:30pm. Home or on the road follow your Lethbridge Hurricanes with news and team headlines on Twitter @WHLHurricanes, play by play analysis @CanesCast or by checking out our website at www.lethbridgehurricanes.com.  Fans can also follow us on our Official Facebook Fan Page at facebook.com/WHLHurricanes or check out the game live on WHL Web TV - log on to whl.ca for details and pricing. Fan can also drop by Pop's Pub South to watch the WHL Webcast live as they present all 36 Hurricanes road games this season.