Lethbridge Hurricanes focused on the task at hand as playoff opener rapidly approaches

“I don’t think it matters too much what you’ve done against a team during the regular season. Calgary’s had a great run, and they’ve played some great hockey this year. If you take away their first 15 games, they’ve been one of the better teams in our league, so we know there’s a big challenge ahead of us, but we’re excited about it,” Kisio said.

Lethbridge had no issues filling the net down the stretch, and that’s reflected in their regular season statistics.

Five players had 70 or more points, and five players had 30+ goals for the Hurricanes this year. It’s the first time since the 1996-97 season that they’ve had five players hit both of those milestones, and that season the Hurricanes won the WHL title.

Lethbridge recently played Calgary, hosting them ten days ago in a 7-4 win at the ENMAX Centre, and with that familiarity, Kisio doesn’t think there’s a lot of secrets between either team.

“We’ve had some games against each other obviously along the way here, and the race has been so close down the stretch that we’ve been watching a lot of games,” Kisio continued. “It’s just a matter of us going out and playing our game, executing and making sure we’re on top of the way we have to play to be successful.”

The Hitmen enter the playoffs losers of four straight games but managed to out-battle the Medicine Hat Tigers and Red Deer Rebels to earn the 3rd spot in the Central Division.

Kisio says Calgary has a lot of dangerous threats.

“They’ve got [James] Malm up front, and [Carson] Focht’s been real hot. They’ve got a lot of good forwards like [Riley] Stotts and [Mark] Kastelic as well, and their backend does a real good job at moving the puck. Then they’ve got two goalies in net that are pretty good goalies. It’s a good challenge, they’re well coached, and they’re a real good hockey club.”

Calgary and Lethbridge will face off in the playoffs for the first time since 2009 when the Hitmen swept the Hurricanes in the second round.

The two teams also met the previous year, in 2008 Eastern Conference Championship Series, where Lethbridge swept Calgary.

Hurricanes forward Jake Elmer, fresh off signing a new entry-level contract with the New York Rangers, says when sizing up the first round matchup his team has a lot of confidence right now.

“We look at the record, and we went 5-1 against them this year, so we know we can take it to them if we play the right way. That’s our mindset, play our game and if we can do that it’ll be a quick series,” Elmer stated.

Elmer admits seeing Calgary up close and personal recently has helped the preparation, but they know the Hitmen well anyway.

“We played them six times this year. We know how they play, we know how they operate, we know how each guy plays, and we’re going to use that to our advantage to take it to them. I know it’s going to be a packed barn on Friday night, and we’re just really excited for that.”

Captain Jordy Bellerive, asked about his scouting report of the Hitmen, replied they’re expecting a team that works hard every night.

“That’s their biggest strength I think, and for us, we’re just excited to keep pushing the pace and putting pucks toward the net. We’ve been scoring a lot lately, so we’ve just got it to keep it up.”

It’s a different feeling around the team this year heading into the post-season compared to last when the team lost eight of nine games down the stretch.

“We’re excited,” Bellerive explained. “Last year was a little bit different obviously, and we turned things around, but now that we’re going in on a hot streak, we’re pretty happy and confident going in.”

Bellerive also admitted his team wasn’t hoping for any particular first-round matchup. Instead, they’re just worried about themselves.

“We’ll take care of the task at hand when it comes around. Any team can show up in playoffs, kind of like we did last year when we were coming in on a cold streak and still made it to the 3rd round. We can’t underestimate anyone, and we just have to stay confident,” Bellerive said.

The best-of-seven series will begin on Friday at 7 p.m.

The complete schedule for the Hurricanes first-round matchup against the Hitmen is below:

Game 1 – Calgary at Lethbridge – Friday, March 22, 7 p.m. – ENMAX Centre
Game 2 – Calgary at Lethbridge – Saturday, March 23, 7 p.m. – ENMAX Centre
Game 3 – Lethbridge at Calgary – Tuesday, March 26, 7 p.m. – Scotiabank Saddledome
Game 4 – Lethbridge at Calgary – Thursday, March 28, 7 p.m. – Scotiabank Saddledome
*Game 5 – Calgary at Lethbridge – Saturday, March 30, 7 p.m. – Nicholas Sheran Arena
*Game 6 – Lethbridge at Calgary – Sunday, March 31, 4 p.m. – Scotiabank Saddledome
*Game 7 – Calgary at Lethbridge – Tuesday, April 2, 7 p.m. – Nicholas Sheran Arena
* if necessary

by Aaron Mahoney (@Mahones93 on Twitter)

Lethbridge Hurricanes focused on the task at hand as playoff opener rapidly approaches

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