Canes skate into the New Year

The puck drops on the 2018 portion of the Lethbridge Hurricanes season tonight. With the calender flipping over to the New Year, the Hurricanes host the Kootenay Ice during Western Hockey League play at 7 p.m. at the Enmax Centre.

The Hurricanes head into tonight’s game in a battle for second place in the Central Division with the Ice.

Kootenay (18-17-3-0) are four points up on the Canes for second place in the Central Division, having picked up one point New Year’s Day in a 5-4 overtime loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers in Cranbrook.

The Canes ended 2017 with points in their last two games, downing the Tigers 5-4 Friday at the Enmax Centre, but losing 3-2 in overtime to the Calgary Hitmen Saturday night in Calgary.

That puts the Hurricanes just one game under the .500 mark at 16-17-3-0 and the team looks to get back to the even mark against an Ice squad that has gone undefeated in their last seven games (5-0-2-0).

There are plenty of familiar faces on the Ice roster with three former Hurricanes occupying the top four spots in the team’s scoring.

Traded prior to this season, Alec Baer leads the Ice in goals with 16 and 31 points in 31 games, good for second place on the team.

Dealt at last year’s trade deadline, Colton Kroeker has nine goals and 31 points in 35 games and sits third in team scoring, while Brett Davis is fourth on the Ice with 10 goals and 23 points in 38 games.

Peyton Krebs, the first overall pick in the 2016 WHL bantam draft, leads Kootenay with nine goals and 33 points in 33 games.

Hurricanes assistant captain Jordy Bellerive netted his 20th goal of the season in Saturday’s loss to the Hitmen. The property of the Pittsburgh Penguins is closing in on his careerbest 27 goals he scored last year and has a fourgame point streak going with seven points in that span.

Canes second-year blueliner Calen Addison also has a four-game points streak going with six points in that time and leads Lethbridge blue liners with seven goals and 41 points in 36 games.

With Hurricanes starter Stuart Skinner out sick, backup Reece Klassen has been pressed into action, going 1-1-1 in the past three games. The 18-year-old product of Cloverdale, B.C. is 34-0-0 with a 3.38 goals against average and .886 save percentage.

Tonight’s game kicks off a four-game homestand for the Canes.

They host the Vancouver Giants Friday and the Hitmen Saturday before the Red Deer Rebels pay a visit to the Enmax Centre Jan. 9.