The Lethbridge Hurricanes hope the friendly atmosphere of their first home playoff game in three seasons will help jumpstart an offense that has been outscored 8-1 through the first two games of the postseason.
“(It’s) quite the crowd we’ve got here,” Canes goalie Bryan Thomson said. “They’re pretty lively when we get them involved so it’s pretty exciting.”
The Canes enter Tuesday’s Game 3 down 2-0 in their best-of-seven first-round series with the Edmonton Oil Kings.
Oil Kings netminder Sebastian Cossa has been tough to beat so far, giving up only one goal on 50 shots. Tyson Laventure is the only Cane to have bested the tender so far, with a late power play goal in Game 1.
“I think we just have to keep putting pucks on him,” Laventure said. “Maybe to the glove side a little or to his feet, kick out some rebounds and hopefully we can get some greasy (goals).”
At the other end of the rink, Thomson has also been solid in the Canes’ net.
Stopping 44 shots in Game 1, he followed that up with a 39-save performance on Saturday. Thomson comes into Tuesday’s tilt with a 0.933 save percentage in the playoffs and he knows he’ll need to be sharp in Game 3.
“(The Oil Kings) have a lot of high-skill on the front end,” Thomson said. “Just need to be aware when they’re on the ice. Shut those lines down and take advantage when they’re not on the ice.”
While the Canes find themselves down 2-0, head coach Brent Kisio is encouraged by his team’s play, particularly in the early minutes of the games, where Lethbridge has held the Oil Kings scoreless in the first periods so far in the series.
“We’ve had a lot of opportunities those first periods to take leads and that’s something we can build upon,” Kisio said. “I’m really proud of our guys, how we’ve played in the first period. They’ve been hard-fought first periods.”
Now, he says the key is to capitalize.
“We have to bear down on our chances. We need timely scoring as an underdog to win this series.
“We haven’t had that yet. We’ve had opportunities but we haven’t put the puck in the net when we wanted to,” Kisio said.
The Canes finished the regular season on a four-game winning streak at the Enmax Centre, a roll they’re looking to carry into Tuesday night and find their first win of the series.
The puck drops on Game 3 at 7 p.m.