Canes drop home, season opener to Tigers Friday night

Sep 18, 2026 | 11:01 PM

The Lethbridge Hurricanes opened the 2026-27 regular season on a losing note, beaten 5-2 by the Medicine Hat Tigers Friday night at VisitLethbridge.com Arena.

Scoreless through the first 20 minutes, the Cats were able to score twice in the middle frame, including a goal with just a minute to play, to go up 2-0 after forty.

Dayne Buecker and Owen Burge had the markers for the Canes, who just didn’t seem to have the bounces they needed to win the opener.

“I thought there was a lot of times we dictated the pace and played our game,” said Buecker post-game.

Tigers goaltender Casey Carter turned aside 25 of the 27 shots he faced.

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“You have to give him credit, he played really well,” Buecker admitted, when asked about the play of the Carter.

“But we got to bear down a bit more, too, and do what we need to do to put it in the net.”

Head coach Matt Anholt shared similar thoughts on the game’s first star.

“I thought their goalie was outstanding early. We had a ton of looks. We outchanced them in the first and second period, but we just had trouble popping it in the net. They had two goals. We had zero and we were outchancing them. Just a little (too much) gripping our sticks on the powerplay.”

The Hurricanes went 1-for-5 with the man-advantage, something the coach says they’ll have a chance to work on at practice next week, but not before the same two teams meet up, again.

The home-and-home series resumes Saturday night in Medicine Hat.

The Canes are back on home ice Friday, the 25th, against the Red Deer Rebels.

by Dave Lueneberg

Canes drop home, season opener to Tigers Friday night

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