After a thrilling series win over the Red Deer Rebels, the Lethbridge Hurricanes fell flat in their second round series opener against the Medicine Hat Tigers. The Hurricanes were outplayed for much of the night, and were shutout 4-0 by a Tigers team that outworked them.
“I think Medicine Hat out competed us for sure,” Hurricanes Head Coach Brent Kisio said. “They were skating better than we were, and they were more physical. We’ve got to ramp up our energy level a little bit more and get engaged in this series.”
The Tigers controlled the game from the drop of the puck, rarely allowing the Hurricanes to put pucks on their net. Medicine Hat forward John Dahlstrom opened the scoring with five minutes to go in the first, when he banged in a loose puck at the side of the net. The tigers would add two more in the second and put the game to bed in the third, when Zack Fischer converted a Chad Butcher feed to make it 4-0.
The Tigers had nine days off prior to this series, while the Hurricanes had only two, but coach Kisio doesn’t believe that was a factor.
“I don’t think so,” Kisio said. “It’s playoffs. Sometimes you’re feeling a little bit tired, sometimes you’re not. It doesn’t matter, it’s round two and you’ve got to be ready to go.”
The Hurricanes were out-shot 37-16 Friday night, and failed to generate many quality scoring chances.
“I don’t think we were coming up the ice together there was too much separation,” Kisio said. “You’ve got to give Medicine Hat credit. They were back-checking hard and tracking pucks down. They were out-competing us in a lot of parts in our game.”
It was a performance the Hurricanes would like to forget. Luckily for them, they don’t have to wait long to erase it from memory.
“We get to play tomorrow (Saturday),” Kisio said. “We get a chance to go back at them tomorrow. We wanted a split going in, and we have a chance to get that tomorrow.”
The Hurricanes and Tigers play game two Saturday night at 7:30 p.m. in Medicine Hat.
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