Canes At The Quarter

Hard to believe, but the Lethbridge Hurricanes are already one quarter of the way through the regular season.

They sit just two points out of first place in the Central Division, sitting with an 11-4-0-3 record. In fact, they are 8-0-0-2 in their last ten games.

Now, keep in mind they have played two more games than many other teams including Edmonton and Medicine Hat, but they have scored the most goals in the entire WHL (67) and are in the middle of the pack in goals against (48).

I haven't been able to see the Hurricanes in person yet, as they don't actually visit Calgary until mid-December. But I have watched and read enough to say there are a trio of things that really stand out to me when it comes to the team's performance thus far.

#1. Dylan Cozens

File this one under: No $*%@ Sherlock. The kid is pretty good, sitting second in league scoring with 11 goals and 14 assists. The Buffalo Sabres first round draft pick has been clutch, particularly on the powerplay where he has ten of his points. He has three game-winners and a shorthanded goal to boot. And Cozens has just as many games with four points as he has with no points (twice). The only thing that might get in his way heading into the second half would be an invite to the World Juniors, which I don't think Canadian hockey fans would be too disappointed to see.

#2. Blueline Offense

Three of the top six point-getters for the Hurricanes this season come from the back end. Alex Cotton leads the entire WHL in points by a defenceman with 18 in 18 games. Calen Addison and Koletrane Wilson round out that top three with 14 and 12 points, respectively. In fact, all three rank in the top 13 in league scoring amongst blue liners. And despite not having a ton of points in the early going, Ty Prefontaine is tied for first among WHL defenseman with a +15 rating. That's not bad for the entire group in the top four.

#3. Goaltending Tandem

When you're scoring a ton of goals, it's easy to overlook the contributions of your goaltenders and the Hurricanes have benefitted from having two goalies not only split the workload, but do it effectively. Carl Tetachuk and Bryan Thomson have been very good with Tetachuk holding a better goals against average (2.15) and save percentage (93%). Neither are leading the league, but they are doing more than enough to keep the team in games, allowing five goals in just one game.

An honourable mention of the day has to go to breakout star Oliver Okuliar, who is coming off back-to-back hat tricks against Winnipeg and Brandon over the weekend and now has 11 goals in his last 7 games and 15 overall.

Not a bad first quarter of the season for the Lethbridge Hurricanes. We will recap the second quarter of the season after the December 14th-15th weekend, which happens to be the final weekend before the Christmas break.